Jul 222014
 

As detailed here, over a 40-year contract period (which is expected to be extended “in perpetuity”), the proponent would receive a subsidy of over $100 million from the provincial government.

The proponent estimated that the proposed station would generate 20.77 GW•h of electricity per year. Given that a typical home uses about 12,100 kW•h/year, the proposed generating station would provide power to about 1,710 homes. Such a typical home pays about $1,625/year (exclusing HST) for this power.

So the provincial subisdy would be about ($100,000,000 / 40 / 1,710 =) $1,462 per home per year.

If only the homes that received this power paid for it, their annual electricity cost would increase by (1,462/1,625 =) 91% to pay this subsidy.

So one way of looking at this deal is that the provincial government has decided that the 1,710 homes that would receive the power from this proposed generating station would have the honour of paying through their provincial taxes a subsidy of about $1,500 per year, for 40 years, to this private developer.

It would therefore appear that:

  • The power consumers of Ontario should know that the real cost of the electicity they use from generating stations such as that proposed for Bala is actually double what they see on their electricity bill.
  • Given that the proponent has apparently spent over $2,000,000 pursuing this opportunity so far, it is clearly a much richer deal for proponents than is necessary.

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