Ontario Power Generation

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Ontario Power Generation
Crown corporation
Industry Electricity generation
Founded 1999
Headquarters Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Key people
 Jeff Lyash – President & CEO; Bernard Lord – Chair
Products Electricity
Revenue Increase $4.73 billion CAD (2012)[1]
Number of employees
 10,840 (2012)
Website www.opg.com
OPG's head office in downtown Toronto
A Mitsubishi i-MiEV from the 2011 Montreal International Auto Show showing the hydro companies of Canada for Ontario Power Generation, Hydro-Québec, BC Hydro & others.

Ontario Power Generation (OPG) is a public company wholly owned by Government of Ontario.[2] OPG is responsible for approximately 50% of the electricity generation in the Province of Ontario, Canada.[3] Sources of electricity include nuclear, hydroelectric, wind, gas and biomass. Although Ontario has an open electricity market, the provincial government, as OPG's sole shareholder, regulates the price the company receives for its electricity to be less than the market average, in an attempt to stabilize prices. Since 1 April 2008, the company's rates have been regulated by the Ontario Energy Board.

Establishment[edit]

OPG was established in April 1999 under the Ontario Progressive Conservative government of premier Mike Harris as a precursor to deregulation of the province's electricity market. As part of government plans to privatize the assets of Ontario Hydro, the utility was split into five separate corporations. OPG was created as the owner and operator of all of Ontario Hydro's electricity generating stations.

Board of Directors[edit]

Bernard Lord is Chairman of the Board of Directors. He was appointed as Chairman in 1 April 2014.[4]

Jeff Lyash is the President and Chief Executive Officer of OPG. He was appointed to this position on 21 August 2015, when the previous President and CEO, Tom Mitchell retired.

Other current members of the Board include William A. Coley, John Herron, Roberta L. Jamieson, M. George Lewis, Peggy Mulligan, Gerry Phillips, Lisa DeMarco, Brendan Hawley, Ira Kagan and Nicole Boivin.[5]

Finances[edit]

The financial situation at Ontario Power Generation has improved significantly since 2003. Its profits for 2005 were $366 million, and its credit rating was upgraded. In July 2006, Liberal Energy Minister Dwight Duncan described OPG's turnaround as "[o]ne of the untold stories of the last two years"[6]

On the local public relations side, OPG has won many awards for its performance as a "good corporate citizen".[7] Most recently, OPG was named "Business of the Year" by the Kincardine and District Chamber of Commerce. OPG regularly sponsors community events and houses wildlife trails in the exclusion zones around its reactors. The company's annual employee charity campaign has raised millions of dollars for charities across Ontario. In October 2008, OPG was named one of "Canada's Top 100 Employers" by Mediacorp Canada Inc., and was featured in Maclean's newsmagazine. Later that month, OPG was also named one of Greater Toronto's Top Employers, which was announced by the Toronto Star newspaper.[8]

OPG regularly reports on its operational, safety and environmental record. The company publishes semi-annual Performance Reports summarizing its performance in these areas.

Nuclear power[edit]

The Darlington Nuclear Generating Station, on the shores of Lake Ontario in Clarington.

OPG is Canada's largest owner of nuclear power plants with responsibility for operating the Pickering A, Pickering B, and Darlington nuclear generating stations in Ontario. OPG also owns the Bruce A and Bruce B nuclear stations. Since May 2001, the Bruce A and Bruce B stations have been on a long term lease to Bruce Power which operates, maintains and is refurbishing the Bruce A units. The lease is set to expire in 2018 but can be extended for an additional 25 years.

OPG is proposing to construct and operate a deep geologic repository on the Bruce Nuclear site, adjacent to its present Western Waste Management Facility. The repository would provide permanent storage of low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste produced from the operation of the Bruce, Pickering, and Darlington nuclear generating stations. In 2005, OPG initiated the regulatory approval process. The first steps are a comprehensive environmental assessment by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA),[9] and an application for a site preparation and construction licence from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

OPG has also begun the process of building up to four new nuclear units at the site of its Darlington Nuclear Station. There is a lengthy approvals process in place, including a full environmental assessment which will take 3–4 years to complete. If everything goes well, the new units would go into service starting in 2018. No decision has yet been made on what technology the new reactors will use.

After conducting studies to determine the feasibility of refurbishing the four reactors at the Pickering B nuclear generating station, in February 2010 an announcement was made that they would be kept in good repair until 2020 but would not undergo a full refurbishment as it would not be economical. The four reactors at Pickering B represent over 2,000 megawatts of generating capacity. The two operating reactors at Pickering A will also close in 2020. The four reactors at Darlington will be refurbished as their performance and size makes this economically desirable.[10]

Alternative energy[edit]

OPG owns and operates or contracts some limited alternative electricity generation through two wind power sites as well as two solar power sites. The company is currently exploring the use of biomass as a carbon neutral energy source that could replace some or all of the coal being burned at some of Ontario's coal-fired generating stations. However, OPG's development of green power sources has been limited as the government does not want OPG to compete against private companies in the anticipated lucrative environmentally friendly power market and has stopped OPG from making any proposals in this area.[11] OPG stopped burning traditional coal in 2014, and burns steam treated wood pellets (biocoal) at Thunder Bay and biomass at Atikokan.[12]

Controversies and criticism[edit]

OPG attracted considerable controversy for the operation of coal-fired generating stations, which ranked among Canada's largest individual air pollution sources.[citation needed] This was mostly because Nanticoke housed a massive 3,900 MW of generation capacity in one site: it produced "the most pollution in one site" despite being a reasonably clean plant per megawatt of power.[13] Nanticoke Generating Station was North America's largest coal-fired generating station and the single largest air pollution source for southern Ontario and northern New York state, attracting considerable criticism from environmentalists and legislators in both jurisdictions. OPG's Lambton Generating Station was the second largest air polluter in the province. The Liberal government of Dalton McGuinty came to power in 2003 with a promise to phase out coal generation by 2007.[14] However, for various operational and demand reasons this was not possible until 2014, when the last coal was burned in OPG's stations.

The company also endured significant criticism concerning the slow return to operation of some of its nuclear generating stations which had been shut down by the 2003 North America blackout. The problem was that all but one of the reactors were tripped and allowed to poison out, preventing an early reconnection to the electricity grid. Once shut down, all nuclear reactors take several days to return to service.

Another source of criticism was the extended and expensive refit to the reactor Unit 4 at the Pickering A Nuclear Station. In late 2003, the incoming Liberal government fired the three most senior executives at OPG on the heels of a report that the retrofit of a single reactor at the Pickering nuclear plant had come in $900 million over budget and three years behind schedule. The government also accepted the resignation of all remaining Board members. Management underestimated the amount of work and complexity of the Unit 4 refurbishment project and failed to do a complete scope analysis before starting on the project.[citation needed] Due to the uproar over the large cost overruns and delays, an independent review committee was commissioned to examine the future role of OPG in the electricity sector; the future structure of OPG; the appropriate corporate governance and senior management structure; and the potential refurbishing of Pickering A Units 1, 2, and 3. Former federal Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister John Manley chaired the review committee. Peter Godsoe, Chairman of the Bank of Nova Scotia, and Jake Epp, a former federal Cabinet Minister, Chair of the Pickering A Review Panel, and interim Chairman of OPG, also sat on the committee.[15]

The experience of refurbishing Pickering A Unit 1 was significantly different with a much tighter adherence to schedule and budget. Unit 1 was returned to service in November 2005 providing 542 MW of generating capacity for Ontario's electricity system. It was decided that Pickering Units 2 and 3, which had considerably larger maintenance issues, would not be restarted as the business case could not be made.

Head office[edit]

Power plants[edit]

The Pickering Nuclear Generating Station.
The 1045-MW R. H. Saunders Generating Station, on the Saint Lawrence River.
The old water mill at Decew Falls
OPG's Thunder Bay Generating Station.
Further information: List of power stations in Ontario

OPG owns and operates generating plants that draw from three main power sources: nuclear, hydro-electric, and fossil fuels, plus some minor output from wind and biomass. In 2012, it generated about 60 per cent of the electricity in Ontario or 83.7 terawatt hours (TWh).

OPG power stations — capacity and output (2012)[16]
Source Stations Capacity (MW) 2012 output (TWh)
Nuclear 2 6,606 49.0
Hydroelectric 65 6,996 39.6
Thermal 5 5,447 4.1
Total 72 19,049 83.7

The Bruce Nuclear Generating Station is the largest nuclear generating station in the world by net electrical power rating, total reactor count, and number of operational reactors. Roughly 60% of Ontario's electricity is accounted for by three nuclear power plants: Pickering, Darlington and Bruce. No fatal accidents related to nuclear power have occurred in Ontario.

OPG power stations
Nuclear Hydro-electric Fossil fuel Other

Large

Small

Altogether there are 29 plants producing 127 MW of power.
  • Atikokan (211 MW coal; being converted to biomass)
  • Lambton (950 MW coal); closed
  • Nanticoke (2.760 GW[18] coal) – The largest coal-fired power plant in North America, now closed with two units retained in storage for possible conversion.
  • Thunder Bay (303 MW coal; being converted to biomass) – Thunder Bay, Ontario;
  • Lennox (2.140 GW oil/natural gas)

Decommissioned/Demolished

Partnerships
  • 3 wind turbines (2 at Bruce and 1 at Pickering (7 MW))
  • 2 biomass plants (6 MW)

References[edit]

  1. ^ OPG Annual Report 2012
  2. ^ OPG Annual Report, 2009
  3. ^ Ontario Power Generation
  4. ^ "Strengthening Ontario Energy Agency Board Governance Government Appoints New Chairs to Hydro One and OPG", Ministry of Energy news release, 7 March 2014. Accessed 1 May 2014
  5. ^ "New and Returning Board Members for Ontario Power Generation and Hydro One", Ministry of Energy news release, 25 April 2014. Accessed 1 May 2014
  6. ^ Ian Urquhart, "A successful turnaround at Ontario Power Generation", Guelph Mercury, 19 July 2006, A12.
  7. ^ Ontario Power Generation awards
  8. ^ "Reasons for Selection, 2009 Canada's Top 100 Employers Competition". 
  9. ^ CEAA Home Page
  10. ^ OPG News Release "OPG Moves to Planning Phase of Darlington Refurbishment" and "Pickering B to Enter Final Decade of Operation with $300-Million Investment" 16 February 2010
  11. ^ Memorandum of Agreement between the Crown and Ontario Power Generation, 17 August 2005
  12. ^ http://www.opg.com/news-and-media/news-releases/Documents/20151021_National%20Bioenergy%20Day.pdf
  13. ^ The Globe and Mail
  14. ^ Four more Ontario coal-fired generating units shut down, Toronto Star October, 1 2010
  15. ^ http://cna.ca/english/pdf/Studies/Transforming%20Ontario's%20Power%20Generation%20Company_04/OPG_Review_complete_e.pdf
  16. ^ "Power Generation". OPG. 
  17. ^ Jointly owned by Ontario Power Generation and Hydro-Québec
  18. ^ http://www.opg.com/power/thermal/brochures/nanticokebrochure.pdf

See also[edit]

External links[edit]

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