Ontario Power Generation Has Been a Reliable Provider of Hydroelectric Power to the Province: Auditor General

TORONTO, Ontario, Dec. 1 -- The Canadian office of the Auditor General of Ontario issued the following news release:

Ontario Power Generation (OPG) has been a reliable source of hydroelectric power, and has the potential to provide additional supply to help meet Ontario's future renewable electricity needs. In her 2022 Annual Report, Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk says that OPG could explore opportunities to increase production at its hydroelectric stations to address the expected shortfall of electricity as demand increases. OPG is a Crown corporation which owns and operates 66 hydroelectric generating stations, and produces more than half of the electricity generated in the province. Hydroelectricity accounts for about 23-25% of Ontario's electricity supply since 2007, and makes up 51% of OPGs total production capacity.

Since 2015, OPG has spilled water that could have generated 25 million MWh of electricity. It recorded approximately $730 million in revenue without generating any power as a result of surplus power supply conditions. "Currently, OPG is forced to spill water instead of producing electricity when demand is low," said. Lysyk. "For example, in 2021, the amount of electricity lost as a result of spilling was 1.9 million MWh, enough to power about 220,000 households for a year."

OPG has not been able to fully utilize its hydroelectric generating capacity over seven years from 2015 to 2021. Over this period, OPG could have generated an additional 43 million MWh of generating capacity. In 2021 alone, OPG could have generated an additional 4.6 million MWh of electricity, or enough to power over 540,000 Ontario households for a year.

Most of OPG's hydroelectric generating stations have been in service for more than 50 years-some for more than 100 years. OPG had a backlog of about 9,500 maintenance work orders at the end of 2021. Ontario lacks a provincial Long-term Energy Plan to guide electricity producers, such as OPG, as they plan for the future. "A Long-term Energy Plan is critically important, as increasing generating capacity itself requires long-term planning," said Lysyk.

The audit report includes 12 recommendations for improvement.

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Original text here: https://www.auditor.on.ca/en/content/news/22_newsreleases/2022_news_AR_AssetMgmtOPG.pdf