POWER December 2016 - 59

GENERATION TRANSITIONS
implementing the political decisions of the
governing Liberal Party, and less as an expert
advocate for the province's energy and
capacity needs.
The government's press release announcing
the abandonment of the renewables procurement
made no mention of OPG; instead, it said
that the Energy Ministry would " begin this fall
with consumers, businesses, energy stakeholders
and indigenous partners regarding the development
of a new Long-Term Energy Plan,
which is scheduled to be released in 2017. "
Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault told the
National Post after the decision to scrap the
next round of renewables, " It was power that
we didn't need right now. Looking at this prudently
and finding ways to continue to have
downward pressure on rates, because that's
one of the mandates that I've been given by
the premier, I acted on it. "
Thibeault said the decision to cancel the
1,000 MW " would save the typical residential
electricity consumer an average of approximately
$2.45 [monthly] on his electricity bill,
relative to previous forecasts. " The opposition
Progressive Conservatives (the Tories)
crowed at the decision, as Ontario has been
selling excess power at low prices to the U.S.
Tory leader Patrick Brown said, " This government
has plowed ahead for years signing
contracts for energy we simply do not need.
The premier has become the best minister
of economic development that Pennsylvania
and New York [have] ever seen. "
Tom Adams, a long-time observer and
critic of Ontario energy policy (and a Tory
supporter who is also skeptical of that party's
electricity policies), told POWER, " The political
science version of the Ontario story
is this. Everything in Ontario's electricity
system has been transitioning over a period
of almost 15 years, mostly since 2002, when
OPG became a direct ward of the state. It is
directly controlled by the Energy Minister's
office and micromanaged to an unbelievable
degree. " As a result, said Adams, " We are up
to our eyeballs in base load, which is underutilized
and losing money. "
Adams said OPG employs many excellent
electricity experts, who know their jobs
and are dedicated to providing the province
with a mix of generating resources that
protects the environment and minimizes
consumer costs. But, he concluded, the politicization
of Ontario's electricity system at
the hands of the Liberals makes their jobs
impossible.
One of the most scathing critics of the
province's electricity policy is Ontario's Society
of Professional Engineers. The National
Post reported that the engineering group " has
issued more than half a dozen critical reports
on the Liberals' tendency to let green talk
December 2016 | POWER
The Strange Case of Thunder Bay
Thunder Bay Generating Station (Figure
2), the final plant in Ontario Power Generation's
(OPG's) fleet to stop burning coal,
is a small, 1963-vintage plant designed
largely to back up the power system in the
case of drought in the hydro-heavy northwestern
section of the province. Located
on the Lake Superior shore, the plant with
a peak output of 326 MW was predicted
to operate only five days per year (less
than 2% capacity factor), according to
the province's auditor general.
While the plant's carbon dioxide emissions
were negligible given its operating
schedule, the provincial government
insisted that it shut down as part of the
political endeavor to make coal disappear
from the province's electric system.
But the plant employed some 60 full-time
workers in an area where unemployment is
rife, causing a political backlash to outright
closure.
The Liberal government in 2004 offered
shifting the plant to natural gas, but
dropped that plan in 2006. In late 2013,
the Energy Ministry announced that the
Thunder Bay plant would be converted to
" advanced biomass. " Biomass made sense,
according to the government's critics, as
the region is heavily involved in wood
products production.
OPG critic Tom Adams commented that
there was a " political need " to get rid of
coal at the Thunder Bay peaking plant, although
it made no economic sense. Nor did
it make sense to switch to natural gas, " because
use of the plant was low and declining. "
According to Adams, the Thunder Bay
coal plant " was doing a pretty good job. "
There was " no justification for an expensive
retrofit " to burning biomass instead of coal.
and politics override sound policy. Instead
of following the expert advice of engineers
and people who understand the intricacies of
electricity production and distribution, the
government took to issuing directives right
out the premier's office. "
While initially agreeing to participate in
the research for this article, OPG failed to
follow up, repeatedly refusing to respond to
POWER's requests for comment. First offering
an interview with renewables chief Mike
Martelli, OPG broke off communication
shortly before the announcement of the decision
to kill the renewables purchases. The
www.powermag.com
The government also decided that it
wanted a better wood fuel than locally
sourced pellets. OPG contracted with the
Norwegian firm Arbaflame to ship expensive
advanced biofuel pellets from Norway
to Thunder Bay, an ironic result of this
generation transition.
Adams commented to POWER that OPG
is bringing in " boatloads of fuel at staggering
prices. The blue-collar union likes
this, and the local newspaper is an undying
fan of this insult to electricity consumers. "
An investigation by Ontario's
auditor general found that Thunder Bay's
power costs 25 times more than other biomass
generators in the province.
Energy Ministry failed to respond to requests
for interviews and comments.
A Longstanding Capacity Glut
Another long-time critic of Ontario's electricity
policies, Financial Post columnist
Terence Corcoran, commented on the government's
renewable retreat: " One should
never underestimate the ability of politicians
to convert massive policy failure into a dazzling
display of green concern for the welfare
of voters. That's the trick now being attempted
by the Liberal government of Ontario as
it begins to unravel parts of its financially
59
2. The end of coal. The Thunder Bay
plant was the last facility to burn coal in
Ontario. One of the station's two units was
converted in 2015 to burn advanced biomass
for peaking and backup power generation.
Courtesy: OPG
http://www.powermag.com
POWER December 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER December 2016
