Deadline set

The Ontario Power Authority has given itself a month to figure out how to provide sufficient power to the North and the Ring of Fire.

Officials with the provincial agency wrapped up its two-day meeting with the Thunder Bay Energy Task Force and the Ministry of Energy at the Valhalla Inn Friday. The meeting was a follow up to the one held two months ago in Toronto and focused on the energy capacity in the region as well as transportation.

Although no decisions were made, Ontario Power Authority gave a self-imposed deadline of June in order to have a plan in place.

“We committed here today towards working as fast as we can,” said OPA planner Andrew Pietrewicz.

“All the proposals on the table are feasible and they can be done. Working together we will get it done.”

One of those proposals includes Ontario drawing power from the United States. Pietrewicz said Ontario is interconnected with many jurisdictions, including New York and Minnesota, and if the province decides to draw power from the US it will be from an already established trading partner.

He agreed that the demand for power is coming and, for the most part, felt most parties favoured the expansion of the East- West line.

The energy task force and the OPA did find some common ground.

OPA acknowledged that its predictions for the energy needs in the region were too low. There was a 700-megawatt difference in the two parties’ predictions.
Pietrewicz said their focus is providing power for the long term.

“The mining sector is a real bright spot in terms of the economy,” he said. “In the shorter term, it is really about that period between coal closure at the end of 2014 and the time the expansion of the east west tie comes in. That will provide reliable service for many years to come.”

Task force chairman Iain Angus said coming to terms with how much power is needed was a big first step to solving the problem.

But the two sides still have plenty of disagreements, the biggest among them being whether or not to keep the Thunder Bay Generation Station going.

The coal-fired plant was scheduled to be converted to natural gas, but that process was stopped in November 2012. While the conversion plans may have stopped, the province is still moving ahead with its mandate to have all of Ontario’s power generating stations weaned off coal by 2014.

Angus believes even if the plant were to start conversion now there would still be a gap in the power needs in the region.

“It would take two years before the plant could be available for generation so we know we’re going to have a gap,” he said. “We’re collectively working on a range of solutions that will deal with that.”

He added it would hypocritical if the province drew power from coal-fired plants in the states.
Regardless of what happens, Angus warned that they no longer have the time to keep discussing the issue.

“We can’t continue to go at this month after month,” he said.

“We need a decision. Officials with the OPA are comfortable with that deadline. We’re already passed the do or die point. The longer we wait the longer we will be without a thermal station in the North.”