Society of Power Engineers: Wind power will drive up power costs
Wind power will drive up power costs: Report
Wind farms have caused outrage in rural Ontario. (QMI files)
TORONTO - The difficulty of connecting intermittent wind power to the province’s electrical grid will help drive up the cost for consumers, the Ontario Society of Power Engineers warns in a report.
“This situation is expected to get much worse over the next several years as significant amounts of wind, hydraulic and nuclear generation will be coming into service while expected electrical demand will continue to be stagnant,” said Monday’s report.
Because wind farms have been offered guaranteed contracts under Ontario’s feed-in-tariff (FIT) program, the province is obligated to buy the power even when demand is slack.
OPSE says that contributes to Ontario having to sell excess power to other jurisdictions at a loss.
The subsidized FIT rates are meant to encourage renewable energy production with generous subsidies guaranteed for 20 years. But critics say the prices are too high and force Ontario to pay premium for power even when demand is low and two 750-megawatt reactors at the Bruce Generating Station prepare to return to service.
A leak at one of those reactors has delayed its anticipated restart.
The OPSE report makes several recommendations it says will alleviate the problem, including giving the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) the authority to reopen existing power contracts to make sure they “align with the economic and environmental needs of the public” and to lower the FIT subsidy rates.
A review of the FIT program by Energy Minister Chris Bentley — expected out Thursday — will lower those subsidies and return some local power to reject unwanted wind projects, the minister has said.
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Comment by alice mckay barnett on March 21, 2012 at 8:46am
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wish this could happen in Maine.
will lower those subsidies and return some local power to reject unwanted wind projects,
Maine as Third World Country:
CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power
Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.
Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT
******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********
(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/
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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law
Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future
"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."
https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/
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