NEWS RELEASE: Sagatay Transmission L.P. Welcomes Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. as a Partner

March 14, 2013 5:46 PM

TORONTO, March 14, 2013 /CNW/ – Sagatay Transmission L.P. (“Sagatay”) is pleased to announce a strategic and financial partnership with a subsidiary of Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. (“APUC”). The agreement calls for APUC to provide expertise and project development financing for a new 300 kilometre Ontario Energy Board regulated 230 kV transmission line to Pickle Lake, Ontario (the “Pickle Lake Transmission Project”). If approved and when constructed, the project is anticipated to cost approximately $250 million.

The Pickle Lake Transmission Project is the first phase in a two-phase project that will provide urgently needed power to northern communities and business. It will enable the transition from expensive and environmentally dirty diesel-fired power systems that are commonplace in most remote First Nations in the region. The project is also conceived to support energy-starved northern industries, including the touted Ring of Fire mineral resource developments. A new line to Pickle Lake was identified as a priority transmission project in Ontario’s Long-Term Energy Plan. The route for the Pickle Lake Transmission Project will follow Highway 599 from Ignace to Pickle Lake.

“The addition of APUC to the Sagatay team will allow us to advance the transmission line expeditiously which will allow our brothers and sisters in the communities north and east of Pickle Lake to be connected to the Ontario energy grid quickly”, said Chief Connie Gray-McKay of the Mishkeegogamang First Nation who along with the Ojibway Nation of Saugeen are partners in Sagatay.

“I am excited and look forward to working with APUC in moving this important project ahead”, said Chief Edward Machimity of the Ojibway Nation of Saugeen.

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[Ontario] Libs botch gas plants and new subway line – by Christina Blizzard (Toronto Sun – March 14, 2013)

http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/home.html

TORONTO — Liar, liar. Gas plants on fire. OK, the gas plants aren’t actually ablaze. They’re being “moved.” We discovered Wednesday that the cost of moving the Oakville plant is nowhere near the lowball $40 million estimate the Liberals have suggested.

Energy expert Bruce Sharp told the legislature’s justice committee probing the cancellation of two gas-fired generating plants in Oakville and Mississauga that costs have been grossly under-reported by the government.

“When we talk about Oakville, my current view is that the total cost of moving that plant is $638 million,” he told the committee.

While there’ll be small savings in some areas, Sharp said increased costs of gas delivery and management will be $313 million and there will be additional transmission costs of $359 million.

Sharp concurred with the $190 million the government said it will cost to move the Mississauga plant, but said the government should have negotiated “at least $28 million lower” for the new gas delivery costs, since they’re moving the plant closer to the Sarnia gas storage facility.

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Cold feet on Ontario’s green energy mania – by Tom Adams (National Post – March 12, 2013)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Ontario has quietly slowed its green juggernaut

As Ontario’s new premier, Kathleen Wynne, zigzags on the province’s electricity future — at once aligning herself with former premier Dalton McGuinty’s green stance and calling for stronger conservation efforts but also promising to backtrack on developer-friendly rules that cut municipalities out of power plant siting decisions — a shift has quietly been underway in the Liberal government’s energy objectives. Since their last electoral victory in 2011, the Liberals have started throttling back their green-at-any-cost energy vision.

Leading up to the 2011 election, McGuinty’s team published its “Long Term Energy Plan.” That plan embodied a radical shift away from a widespread consensus that had prevailed for over a hundred years that the purpose of Ontario’s power system was to serve consumers.

McGuinty’s new purpose for the power system was to deliver a green-at-any-cost social and economic transformation. The plan anticipated steeply escalating electricity rates. The worst increases — compound annual growth of 7.9% for household consumers — were projected over the period 2011 through 2015.

McGuinty’s last energy minister, Chris Bentley, vigorously promoted the government’s green electricity plan. Last April, for example, he gave a speech at a conference in Toronto for wind and solar power developers.

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Surplus wind power could cost Ontario ratepayers up to $200 million: IESO – by John Spears (Toronto Star – February 27, 2013)

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Surplus wind power could cost Ontario ratepayers millions and compromise power system, says electricity system operator. It says renewable energy market rules must change

Coping with surplus wind power will cost Ontario electricity ratepayers up to $200 million a year if market rules don’t change, says the power system operator.

Moreover, it says, if it can’t control the flow of wind and solar power onto the Ontario grid, then “reliable and economic operation of the power system is, at best, highly compromised and likely not feasible.”

The Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) makes the statements in a filing with the Ontario Energy Board.
It is responding to complaints from big wind power companies that the IESO’s proposals to impose new market rules on wind and solar power will cost them millions in lost revenue.

The dispute comes as more and more renewable power is about to flow onto the province’s power grid. About 2,700 megawatts of wind and solar power are currently feeding electricity into Ontario’s system, three-quarters of it wind. That amount is set to more than triple by January, 2016.

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Inquiry into cancelled Ontario power plants would change little for Liberals – by Scott Stinson (National Post – February 27, 2013)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

When Dalton McGuinty’s government announced in the fall of 2010 that it was cancelling a planned power plant in Oakville in response to intense local opposition, a political staffer in the Ministry of Energy sent an email to the deputy minister to provide the highlights.

“It went as well as it could have,” she noted. Near the end was this kicker: “Financially, it’ll be muddy in the papers tomorrow. Province could be on the hook for millions.”

Those sentences, part of a batch of documents released under freedom-of-information laws to energy researcher and writer Tom Adams, provide a tidy summation of the Ontario Liberal approach to the messy business of the Oakville gas-plant shuttering, and the subsequent cancellation of a Mississauga plant during the 2011 election campaign.

For most of two years, the cost of the Oakville decision was unknown to the public. And from the moment a price tag of $40-million was put on it this past fall, skepticism of that number’s accuracy, and the $190-million figure attached to the Mississauga closure, has abounded.

And with good reason. Last week, when Colin Andersen, chief executive of the Ontario Power Authority, presented himself at Queen’s Park to try to explain the spectacular inefficiency of an OPA document search that has led the Liberals to admit twice now, several months apart, that their release of all the documents related to the gas-plant decisions was in fact only a partial release, he was asked flat-out if it the government’s numbers could be trusted. He responded that he would wait for the Auditor-General’s report on the matter.

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Dalton McGuinty: Canada’s greenest premier ever – by Stewart Elgie (Toronto Star – February 25, 2013)

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Former Ontario premier moved to control urban sprawl and phased out coal-powered generation.

Stewart Elgie is professor of law and economics at the University of Ottawa (he discloses that the Ontario government has been one of many funders of the research institute he directs).

A handful of Canadian political leaders have left impressive environmental legacies. Mike Harcourt ended B.C.’s “war in the woods,” creating a world class parks network and tough new forestry rules. David Peterson pioneered the blue box recycling program, and made great strides in fighting acid rain and water pollution across Ontario (together with environment minister Jim Bradley).

Brian Mulroney, voted Canada’s greenest prime minister, passed three major environmental laws and played key roles in pushing global treaties on species loss, ozone depletion and climate change. But Dalton McGuinty is the greenest of them all, as a review of his environmental record reveals.

Let’s start with controlling urban sprawl — a huge problem in southern Ontario. McGuinty’s government passed the Places To Grow Act, requiring cities and towns to grow within their existing footprints (up, not out).

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Ontario has a dead government walking – by Rex Murphy (National Post – February 23, 2013)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Wynne cannot win. The Ontario Premier’s coming electoral loss-to-be was written long before she became Liberal leader earlier this month. The now infamous story of the cancellation of two Ontario gas plants in Oakville and Mississauga — the latter during the last election — continues oh-so-justly to hound the Ontario Liberals. It has utterly blasted Liberal credibility in Ontario.

Yesterday, for the second time, Ontario Power Authority officials were fidgeting on camera about documents that were overlooked or skipped in previous searches on the file. They were at awkward and uncomfortable pains to assert that in this unfolding mess nothing had been held back deliberately. It was all blamed on a bad “search” heading. Something to do with computers.

Their assertion was echoed with even greater gaucherie in the Ontario legislature by Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli. He was heard to boast: “We took the initiative when we found out about these documents to release them of our own volition.”

Wow. Their own volition, eh? The Minister was actually bragging about doing what the law and honour require him to do. Truly we are in a golden age of democracy and public accountability.

Well, whether it was from fear that the documents would find the light anyway, or some last minute spasms of piety on the part of the now tattered Liberal government, release a new batch of documents they did.

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Energetic questions – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal Editorial (February 15, 2013)

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

IN a world beset by economic challenges, Canada enjoys two advantages. Already ahead of many other countries in terms of recovery (albeit one that does not always share its wealth equally) Canada is poised to embark on a major resources boom.
In Alberta, the oilsands could quench the energy thirst of millions of people as economic recoveries look to be fuelled. In Northwestern Ontario, a remarkable series of mineral discoveries are relished globally for construction and consumer products.

However, both developments are beset by environmental pitfalls.

Beyond the question of more fossil fuel to be burned, adding to global warming, is the matter of moving Alberta’s new oil to market. The United States is poised to reconsider a plan to build a pipeline to carry the crude oil to Texas refineries amid a growing chorus of opposition in both countries.

A second round of opposition involves plans for a pipeline to ship Alberta oil to a port in British Columbia where critics point to danger to oil tankers in the port’s tricky waterway. Spills are always a potential pipeline side effect.
If neither of these challenges can be overcome, Canada stands to lose billions in potential revenue and see the United States and China drain away as customers.

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OPG considering biomass option for Thunder Bay plant – CBC News Thunder Bay (February 13, 2013)

http://www.cbc.ca/thunderbay/

Thunder Bay Generating Station may operate beyond 2014, manager says

Ontario Power Generation says it’s taking a closer look at whether the Mission Island Generating Station could be converted to burn biomass. Last year, the utility suspended work on converting the Thunder Bay plant from coal to natural gas. The province will stop using coal-fired plants next year.

The plant manager for Ontario Power Generation’s Northwest Thermal, which runs the plants in Thunder Bay and Atikokan, said they are looking at other options.

“I remain optimistic that [the] Thunder Bay [Generating Station] will be operational beyond 2014,” Chris Fralick said.

“I don’t know in what form. There’s a lot of uncertainty still that needs to be sorted out. There’s a lot of discussions that still need to be had. There’s going to be a need for power, and there’s going to be a need for the Thunder Bay [Generating Station].”

OPG formally announced it was suspending the coal-to-gas conversion in Thunder Bay in November. At that time, the power workers’ union suggested biomass conversion as a possible alternative — something the OPG will consider.

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[Ontario] Energy boss Bob Chiarelli may yet burn on hot seat – by Greg Van Moorsel (London Free Press – February 12, 2013)

http://www.lfpress.com/

Florida used to have a notorious, malfunctioning electric chair. Affectionately known as ‘Old Sparky,’ it grabbed headlines for setting the odd condemned person on fire.

Ontario also has such a device, the energy minister’s seat at the provincial cabinet table. Call it a political death chair. When rookie Premier Kathleen Wynne introduced her first cabinet Monday, Ottawa MPP Bob Chiarelli found himself in the energy hot seat. He may yet have to be strapped in.

Energy has been a red-hot file for the Liberals, and for every recent Ontario government, because politicians have insisted on playing politics with power — from freezing rates for political advantage, to coddling the old Ontario Hydro’s empire builders.

For the Liberals, the difference now is no one can afford those costly indulgences — certainly not the province, with its $12 billion budget shortfall, nor taxpayers or electricity consumers. Not the Grits, either — not if Wynne hopes to do better than cling to power by her fingernails with her fragile minority government.

We saw the damaging effects of treating electricity like a political play toy during the gas-plants scandal last fall. As the heat grew on the government over the fiasco, Dalton McGuinty abruptly shut down the legislature and announced his departure from office after nine years. That led to Wynne being crowned the handoff premier last month.

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Ontario’s Samsung green energy deal ripens slowly – by John Spears (Toronto Star – February 9, 2013)

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Three years after Ontario signed a $7 billion green energy deal with Samsung, the first projects are in sight. Ontario’s controversial $7 billion deal with Samsung Renewable Energy is running late. And delays in the initial stages of the deal are likely to cascade into further deferrals, the company says.

But in a rare interview, Samsung’s top man in Canada defended the company’s agreement with the province, which has become a lightning rod for critics of the Liberal government’s renewable energy policies. Ki-Jung Kim said that Samsung has been surprised at the length of time it has taken to get regulatory clearance for its wind and solar projects.

With the first two phases of the five-phase mega-project already delayed by a year, Samsung is now negotiating with provincial officials to extend deadlines for completing the other three phases beyond the original date of 2016.

Kim, who is executive vice president for Samsung’s Ontario project, said the company hasn’t wavered in its commitment to green energy. “Samsung is a globally responsible company; we are doing the right things in the right way,” he said.
“Renewable energy we believe is the right thing we have to pursue.”

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McGuinty’s legacy is a green nightmare – by Margaret Wente (Globe and Mail – February 2, 2013)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

In the morning of Jan. 5, workers with a fleet of heavy equipment mounted a stealth assault on a bald eagle’s nest near the shore of Lake Erie. Their mission was to remove the nest – one of only a few dozen bald eagle nests in Southern Ontario – to make way for an access road to the site of a new industrial wind turbine. As a pair of eagles looked on from a nearby tree, the workers sawed off the limb with the giant nest and took it away to parts unknown.

Ontario’s environmental regulations would usually make this illegal. But the wind company, NextEra Energy, one of the biggest operators in the province, had obtained special dispensation.

Wind power is supposed to be environmentally friendly. But a lot of environmentalists don’t think so. “People couldn’t believe it happened,” says Scott Petrie, a waterfowl ecologist and executive director of Long Point Waterfowl, a conservation group. “Cutting down bald eagle nests flies in the face of anything you would call green energy.”

Wind turbines have invaded many of Ontario’s most scenic and ecologically rich areas. They’re invading coastal wetlands and spreading along major migratory flyways – up the Bruce Peninsula, west to Lake Huron, south to Lake Erie, and east to Prince Edward County, where environmental groups are fighting a major wind development in Ostrander Point, an important bird area.

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Gas pains for Wynne – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal (February 1, 2013)

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

IT is hard to argue Kathleen Wynne’s first decision as premier-elect of Ontario. Facing an $11-billion budget deficit, the government must question every bit of proposed spending to ensure it’s in taxpayers’ best interest. Using that logic Wynne has said a public inquiry into the Liberal government’s cancellation of two suburban Toronto gas plants in seats it tried to save will be too expensive.

That might fly if she would approve an alternative to the NDP’s demand for an inquiry. But she has not committed to a Progressive Conservative call to reconstitute a legislative committee that was about to delve into the matter when Premier Dalton McGuinty suddenly resigned and prorogued the legislature.

It has already cost Ontario taxpayers at least $230 million to scrap the two gas-fired generating stations and the Liberals were guilty of failing to produce all of the paperwork — which the opposition charges will reveal even more cost.
Wynne has acknowledged there may yet be more documents that should be revealed.

But the discovery of an email from an energy ministry employee directing the Ontario Power Authority on which documents to release and which to withhold demands Wynne act decisively to mend this wound on the government’s reputation. If she won’t approve reforming the all-party committee how can she offer absolute assurance the whole story will come out? Surely she won’t ask us to simply trust her.

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As cost pressures mount, Ontario’s wholesale power prices set to soar – by Shawn McCarthy (Globe and Mail – January 31, 2013)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

OTTAWA – Electricity consumers in Ontario face the prospect of soaring prices in the coming decade, a trend that would put additional cost pressure on power-hungry industrial users.

The cost pressures are rising at the province completes the closing of its coal-fired plants while its nuclear fleet faces further retooling and renewable power takes a greater share of the load. A new forecast by London Economics International predicts Ontario’s wholesale power price will jump by 74 per cent – to $55.80 per megawatt hour between 2013 and 2022 from $32. That figure does not include higher costs to distribute the power and for conservation and other demand-side programs.

Concerns about rising electricity prices will be one of the key economic challenges facing the incoming premier Kathleen Wynne as she prepares to assume power from the outgoing Dalton McGuinty. Ms. Wynne will have to take on opposition critics who have slammed the government for its election-related cancellation of a gas-fired power plant that result in $190-million in compensation payments to the plant’s financiers.

Ontario is not alone in anticipating sharply higher power prices. Alberta will see its wholesale prices decline slightly over the next few years, but then turn, beginning to rise significantly in the latter part of the decade. Western New York State could see wholesale electricity prices double, but from a lower base than Ontario, according to A.J. Goulding, president of the Toronto-based economics firm, which has produced a series of forecasts for provinces and states.

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Ontario’s gas-plant stink will linger after Dalton McGuinty’s departure – by Andy Frame (Toronto Star – January 26, 2013)

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Andy Frame is a consultant in the electrical power industry. Formerly he was a senior adviser on electric utilities for the Ontario energy ministry, a municipal hydro chairman and chair of the Utility Association.

This weekend, the Ontario Liberal party will have a new leader, the province will have a new premier and — eventually — the legislature will begin a new session.

But one old question remains. The opposition parties are determined to force the government to bring out all the details of the McGuinty administration’s power plant selection process, which they claim will cost the province up to $900 million.

Let’s go back five years to when the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) first announced its plan to build two new gas-fired power plants to serve the GTA. At a meeting attended by more than 500 in Mississauga, an OPA manager explained the site-selection process and listed the 10 sites under consideration. Local meetings were to be held to meet with citizen groups and other interested parties to explain the need for more power and the site-selection criteria.

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