Winds Absence is a Good Thing as October 4, 2022, Demonstrates

Anyone who read the short article about the output of those IWT (industrial wind turbines) on October 2^nd when they operated at 52% of their capacity for the first 16 hours and cost us Ontario ratepayers/taxayers several million dollars for unneeded generation will be pleased with what happened yesterday!

Over the full 24 hours yesterday IWT were basically useless generating only 2,322 MW which was less than 2% of their capacity and averaged less than 100 MW per hour!  Who knows, they may have been consuming more power than they produced?

The good news for Ontarians was the HOEP (hourly Ontario energy price) market price was fairly robust and over the 24 hours averaged $57.32/MWh versus the $1.57/MWh they averaged over the first 16 hours on the 2^nd meaning our losses on exported power (which was much less) was tiny in comparison.

One of the issues also impacting the price was total consumption was higher as was the peak Ontario demand hour which was Hour 19 reaching 16,753 MW versus the 15,320 MW at Hour 20 on October 2^nd.  This latter point drives up demand for surplus generation when those intermittent and unreliable IWT fall flat meaning our neighbours in NY, Michigan and Quebec pay much higher prices for any power including that which may be surplus to our demand. The other good part of the foregoing is related to the cost paid for any exported natural gas generation as the price we pay is only fuel costs plus a small additional price per kWh (kilowatt hour). The latter is well below the average cost we pay daily per kWh!

We need more days like yesterday to stop the accumulation of taxpayer debt under the Ontario Electricity Rebate (OER) program which the Ford government launched.  The FAO (Financial Accountability Office) estimated the OER will cost taxpayers $38.6 billion over the full remaining term of the renewable energy (wind, solar and biomass) contracts.

Perhaps the Ford government via the creation of the OER believes an electricity consumer and a taxpayer are two different individuals, but they are generally one and the same. 

One would hope they will soon recognize the foregoing fact and rethink the push for net-zero due to its impact on current and future taxpayers and ratepayers.