Ontario power rates going up

Cariboocoot
Cariboocoot Banned Posts: 17,615 ✭✭✭
in Energy Use & Conservation #1
News article: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/22082010/71/central-hydro-prices-rocket.html

Look at the current TOU peak rate: less than ten cents. It's not clear what the over-all increase will end up being, but even if it's 100 percent the grid power is still cheaper than straight solar and well below cost of grid-tie.

But one wonders how much of that extra utility income is going for conservation programs and how much is going for pay hikes and profiteering. :roll:
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  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,613 admin
    #2
    Re: Ontario power rates going up

    From the linked article:
    That's 17.7 per cent more than the $99.35 a month the same residential customer was paying in April. Half the increase is due to higher rates and half because of the HST.
    ...
    Adams assigned much of the blame for the rise in electricity rates to Ontario's Green Energy Act, which promotes the use of solar, wind and other alternative power sources.

    The Feed-in Tariff (FIT) program, which locks in generous payments for 20 years for large green energy projects, is "just outrageous," Adams said.

    The program's rates are far in excess of current electricity prices. The FIT program, for example, offers producers between 44.3 cents and 71.3 cents per kilowatt hour for solar power, and between 13.5 and 19 cents for wind power.

    By contrast, the average weighted price for electricity so far this year is 4.02 cents per kilowatt hour.
    ...
    One driver is an OEB decision last December that allowed local utilities to increase their allowed rate of profit. The decision bumped Hydro Ottawa's allowed return on equity to 9.85 per cent from 8.57 per cent.

    There's some public benefit to that because the City of Ottawa is Hydro Ottawa's sole owner, but "that is going to drive the distribution and transmission components of the bill up by more than 10 per cent just in and of itself," Adams said.
    Lots of little stuff like the above in the article...

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
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  • Cariboocoot
    Cariboocoot Banned Posts: 17,615 ✭✭✭
    #3
    Re: Ontario power rates going up

    Related: http://forum.solar-electric.com/showthread.php?p=64163#post64163
    :roll:
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  • drees
    drees Solar Expert Posts: 482 ✭✭✭
    #4
    Re: Ontario power rates going up

    Seems fairly clear that Ontario is paying too much for PV...

    It seems like they are building a PV bubble that will pop once the money runs out.

    I have to wonder where they decided to pay 40-70c / kWh for PV power - it seems that they designed it to completely pay for the system including financing - and then some.
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  • Ralph Day
    Ralph Day Solar Expert Posts: 1,022 ✭✭✭✭
    #5
    Re: Ontario power rates going up

    Marc,
    Please say it ain't so! The Ont gov't making a mistake on solar? I'll still read your posts though. sniff sniff.

    (check out my signature, 80.2 cents shhhh!)

    Ralph
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  • Cariboocoot
    Cariboocoot Banned Posts: 17,615 ✭✭✭
    #6
    Re: Ontario power rates going up

    Ralph;

    Curious, isn't it? On the one hand they're paying $ for solar energy installs and then they're hiking rates for everyone. Meanwhile, the solar is reducing demand and cutting income to the utility which is owned by the government thereby reducing revenues used to pay for the solar installs which ....

    It's all a bit Machiavellian! :p
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  • Windsun
    Windsun Solar Expert Posts: 1,164 ✭✭
    #7
    Re: Ontario power rates going up

    It looks like New Jersey is even worse off - a 25% increase.

    http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/10/0822/2021/
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  • drees
    drees Solar Expert Posts: 482 ✭✭✭
    #8
    Re: Ontario power rates going up

    Here in San Diego they're trying to get a 7% rate hike through - not solely related to efforts to increase renewable energy - but to cover the increase price of an insurance policy as a result of the last major fires in the area attributable to poorly maintained high voltage lines which sparked in high wind conditions.

    http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/aug/06/sdge-requests-rate-hike/

    However, we have some of the highest rates in the country - they say it's because the typical household uses half the electricity on average and the carbon intensity of our grid is the lowest in the nation, too.

    http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/aug/20/lower-power-use-means-higher-rates/

    Luckily I'll be mostly insulated from the price hikes as currently most of my electricity should be offset by my PV install (will have a better picture next April). Though if I get an electric car (looking at getting a Nissan Leaf) I will need to add about 1 kW more panels to cover that usage as well.
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  • russ
    russ Solar Expert Posts: 593 ✭✭
    #9
    Re: Ontario power rates going up

    @ Cariboocoot - Sounds perfectly governmental to me.

    They provide us with 'things' we don't want or think we need, charge us for them and then spend millions to educate us as to why we wanted the 'things' all along but just didn't realize it - all the while expanding government to support these new 'things' for which they will have to raise taxes!
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