Coal a tough habit to drop in Ontario
This comes as no surprise: Ontario may have to delay the shutdown of some of its coal-fired plants. This week the Independent Electricity System Operator — the organization that makes sure power loads in the province balance with power supply — said in a report that the coal capability of Ontario may need to be kept in place for a period of time “beyond the announced shutdown dates.”
“This will allow for continued reliability by providing insurance to accommodate schedule delays for the replacement generation or reduced production from existing or new facilities,” according to the IESO.
Now, surprise, surprise, Ontario Energy Minister Donna Cansfield said today that, yes, well, the province is committed to shutting down the plants but, er, ahem… “We would never put the reliability of the system at risk.”
Well, considering the IESO is saying that the reliability of the system is at risk, I guess you can put 2 and 2 together. I say it’s time to start thinking about some investments in clean-coal retrofit technology, which is exactly what the union representing coal workers has been arguing for the past year.
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
