| Apr 14, 2016


The dust is still settling after the Independent Electricity Service Operator (IESO) bypassed proposals based in North Frontenac and Addington Highlands in early March.

Among contracts that were awarded under the Large Renewable Procurement (LRP) process for 300 MW of capacity, were two in Eastern Ontario, one near Ottawa and one north of Cornwall.

Shortly after the contracts were awarded, the IESO opened up a consultation process to set out a new process for the next round of procurement, which could take as long as a year to complete.

Now, the Province of Ontario has informed the IESO that the next round of contracts will be for twice as much wind power, 600 MW, and that contracts are to be awarded just over two years from now, by May 1, 2018 at the latest.

According to North Frontenac Mayor, Ron Higgins, based on information he received during an IESO webinar this week, the next procurement will focus on Eastern and Central Ontario, because there is no more grid capacity in Southwestern Ontario, where the vast majority of Ontario wind turbines are located.

All of this is happening in the context of a setback for a number of rural municipalities who have declared themselves 'unwilling hosts' for industrial wind turbines.

Mayor Higgins took the position in March, on behalf of North Frontenac and a number of other like-minded townships, that municipal support should be a necessary precondition for submitting a bid on a wind contract.

“We would like to replace the current system, whereby municipal support is one of the rated criteria in a points system to one where municipal support is a mandatory requirement,” Higgins said.

Soon after, at a speech in Kingston, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne made it clear that the new rules governing the LRP process will not include anything resembling a municipal veto.

“We have never said there was going to be a veto for municipalities, but we put in place much more rigorous consideration of municipalities' concerns,” she said.

In response to that, Ron Higgins has decided to engage in the review process, focusing on issues such as crown land allocations for wind projects.

“We need to engage in the process that is in front of us, or we would have no effect on the rules that are eventually set out,” he said.

At the same time, one of the position papers Higgins has written about industrial wind turbines is being used by a group of landowners from Prince Edward County in a court case claiming that the Green Energy Act of Ontario contravenes Human Rights legislation and is therefore unconstitutional.

“The proponents think they have a pretty strong case, and if they do win it could put a halt to all the projects that flow from the Green Energy Act, including the LRPs” Higgins said.

In spite of all these efforts, it is not clear that the arguments of municipal politicians such as Ron Higgins have had any impact on the process thus far.

In the just completed procurement, both of the bids located in North Frontenac Township, which opposed the project, failed.

However, a bid located entirely in Addington Highlands Township, which supported the project, also failed.

To all appearances, the most important factor - and this might be why the province is doubling the procurement for wind - is that in the just announced contracts the average price for wind was under 9 cents per kilowatt hour, well below the price that is paid for solar or small scale hydro or bio-fuel.

The good news for opponents of wind projects in North Frontenac, and Addington Highlands for that matter, is that the proponents from last time around both admitted that the prevailing winds in the area are not as strong as they are in other parts of the province. That, combined with distance factors, may make the region a high cost producer of wind power.

With continued public pressure to demonstrate that their renewable energy initiatives will yield affordable power, the pressure will continue to mount on potential wind power producers to come up with ever lower pricing.

If this region cannot produce 9 cent per kilowatt hour pricing, it may end up being left behind in 2018 as well, whether the local townships support wind projects or not.

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