TORONTO – Toronto Hydro is asking the Ontario Energy Board to increase electricity rates to generate $4 billion to upgrade aging infrastructure.
But not one of the agencies involved – the OEB, Toronto Hydro and the Ontario government – will answer questions about the specifics of the request.
Despite that media silence, Bob Chiarelli, Ontario’s Minister of Infrastructure, says the process is open and transparent.
“It’s an open process. It’s an oral hearing. So you can go to the Ontario energy board hearings and you can listen to the evidence, it’s totally transparent,” he said during an interview at Queen’s Park Thursday.
Ontario’s hydro system is a complicated mess, according to Tom Adams, a Toronto-based energy consultant.
“Part of the problem is we got a power system with a lot of band aids and every band aid has its own acronym and many of them have their own agencies,” Adams said in an interview.
Adams suggested a ratepayer’s monthly bill is needlessly confusing. The total for each monthly bill is broken down into a number of different costs including the amount of electricity used, delivery costs, regulatory charges, debt retirement charges and Ontario Clean Energy Benefit costs.
According to the Ontario Energy Board the cost of electricity has more than doubled since 2002 when the cost per kilowatt was $0.043. Now, the cost is $0.088 per kilowatt.
Toronto Hydro cannot unilaterally hike the costs however. The agency has to apply to the Ontario Energy Board for permission – which is currently going on.
Toronto Hydro says the extra $4 billion for repairs would cost the average ratepayer about $3.50 more each month.
WATCH: (Nov. 5) Toronto Hydro wants $4 billion over the next 10 years to replace aging infrastructure
Chiarelli called the process involved in raising rates an open “quasi-judicial process.”
Adams however said much more transparency is needed to make the system work more efficiently.
“We need to have much better transparency. There’s a whole lot of stuff that you pay for that you are not allowed to know about,” Adams said. “There’s a long list. Transparency around the data, just simple disclosure, i think is one of the necessary but insufficient ways to get us to a solution to get it fixed.”
Some of the different electricity agencies operating in Ontario and Toronto.
- The Ontario Energy Board which decides how much distributors can sell electricity for.
- The Independent Electric System Operator which manages the supply and demand of electricity in Ontario.
- The Ontario Power Authority is an independent body which coordinate conservation efforts and makes long-term plans for the electricity system.
- Ontario Power Generation generates electricity for most of the province except where there are local generators.
- Hydro One which transmits the electricity to the distributor
- Toronto Hydro which distributes electricity through the city and maintains the city’s infrastructure.
Chiarelli readily admits Ontario’s hydro system is confusing – but, he said, the Ontario government is trying to make it a bit easier to understand.
“I would say there are a lot of elected officials and maybe even the odd minister here and there over the last number of years who have trouble understanding it,” Chiarelli said.
“It needs to be made simpler.”
The government has charged the Mowatt Institute at the University of Toronto with the task of formulating a campaign to explain the province’s hydro-electric system to Ontarians.
– With files from Alan Carter
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