Ford PCs triple fossil fuel generation to fill looming electricity gap
New power projects were cancelled despite rising electricity demand for jobs, now PCs have fired up fossil fuels.
Since their election in June 2018, the Ford PC government has tripled Ontario’s use of carbon-emitting fuels to generate electricity, according to data from Statistics Canada.
Ontario’s gas-burning power stations generated just over 910,000 megawatt hours of electricity in June 2018, when the Ford PC were elected. Ontario fossil fuel generation more than tripled to over 3 million MWh in both July and August this summer, since falling back to about 2.5 million MWh with cooler weather in September, the most recent month reporting.
Lack of energy plan has Ontario scrambling and spinning
A recent report from the Independent Electrical System Operator, the crown agency managing electricity supply, shows rising demand and falling supply will create an electricity gap by 2029.
The PCs have fired up fossil fuel burning plants to bridge the gap.
IESO forecasts industrial demand will rise significantly for Ontario jobs. Meanwhile, the province’s current multi-year Conservative and Demand Management Framework expires at the end of December with no replacement. Conservation plans cut demand by incenting consumers to make efficiency improvements.
Though demand grows, the Ford PCs cancelled new clean power projects upon coming to office and no new major power plants have since been started. The power plant cancellations cost of $213 million.
Several units at nuclear generating plants, which generate more than half of Ontario’s electricity, are already or soon offline for long-scheduled rebuilds.
Solving the looming gap by importing electricity from Quebec is a shrinking option as that province grapples with its own generating problems.
Despite the looming shortage, Energy Minister Stephen Lecce recently claimed Ontario is on the verge of becoming an “energy superpower.”