The Ontario Energy Board has decided closing the Thunder Bay Generating Station is unacceptable.
The decision came last week when the board ordered the Integrated Electrical System Operator to enter into a contract with Ontario Power Generation. The contract will ensure that OPG receives enough funding to operate one unit of the city’s coal-fired plant in order to meet the region’s power needs.
Controversy has surrounded the city’s coal-fired generation station since last year when then Energy Minister Chris Bentley placed the conversion of the plant from coal to natural gas on hold indefinitely.
Common Voice Energy Task Force co-chair Iain Angus said the decision means they have one more voice to try to restart the conversion process.
“Until now we have felt that we were a voice in the wilderness up against the powerful southern Ontario focused energy agencies,” Angus said in a release.
Angus said they see the decision as confirmation of what they have been saying for the past couple of months.
He said the plant will run if as a fill in with no other power is available such as solar and wind.
“We don’t see any negative changes between now and next year,” he said. “We’re still going to need it for 2014. It’s only to get more demand in the Northwest with the mines coming online. You now have two out of three agencies that are saying the plant is needed.”
He added that they sent the announcement to the city’s two MPPs in order for them to lobby to the energy minister to restart the conversion.
Fellow Energy Task Force co-chair Larry Hebert said the decision is only good until the end of the year but OPG has been asked to send in another request for 2014 in order to keep that unit running.
“Our big challenge is still 2015,” he said.
“But we hope there will be a long term decision on the plant that is realistic. This is an interim step that’s very positive. I think they are listening to us given the decision and I think they realize how important this is. We need this power no question about it.”
Beckie Codd-Downey, press secretary for Ontario Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli, said in an email that their priority has always been to ensure there will to be a stable, reliable and cost-effective supply of electricity in the region when the city’s coal plant closes by the end of 2014.
She said Ontario’s energy agencies are working together to explore the best way to meet future needs and that Chiarelli is working closely with the city’s two MPPs. She also mentioned he has met with the Northern Energy Taskforce.
“We have a responsibility to wait for the full assessment by the OPA before making any final decision on conversion,” she said in the email.
“In the meantime, OPG is continuing to explore options. The OPA and the IESO are still considering options to ensure adequate, reliable power in the Northwest until the proposed enhancement to the East-West tie enters operation.”
