Tom Adams, an independent energy consultant, has been making the rounds to media outlets in Ontario to discuss what he describes as a “fleecing” of electricity consumers in the province. He is, of course, referring to conclusions of a Fraser Institute report, What Goes Up: Ontario’s Soaring Electricity Prices and How to Get Them Down. Adams co-authored the study with Ross McKitrick, an environmental economics professor at the University of Guelph.

Are Ontario electricity ratepayers being fleeced by the addition of wind and solar energy to the provincial power grid? We want to hear from you. 

In a nutshell, the report’s authors conclude that even though wind and solar energy account for a small portion of total capacity on the system (about 4%), they contribute a substantially large portion (22%) of the commodity price of electricity.

As for rising electricity prices, Adams and McKitrick say wind energy is a big culprit. For every 1 MWh of wind energy added to the Ontario electricity system, the global adjustment (the GA is the primary driver behind rising electricity rates in Ontario) will rise by $0.21. In 2013, wind energy averaged 26% of the mean GA, say the authors.

The report adds that the implied costs to the electricity system in Ontario are more than three times larger (3.6 actually) than the payments to wind energy companies with Feed-in-Tariff Program (FIT) contracts.

“In other words, taking into account the changes in system parameters induced by the addition of wind capacity, the change in the GA, when applied to all electricity purchases, costs consumers three times the direct amount of the FIT payments themselves,” says What Goes Up.

Your Turn to Sound Off

The report clearly takes aim at wind energy as being a much larger culprit for electricity price increases than others. A Power Advisory study done for Environmental Defence concluded that wind and solar still make up small portions of the GA. Even the Ontario Energy Board’s own market surveillance panel has concluded in the past that wind and solar are small contributors to GA.

So what do you think of the Fraser Institute’s report? Is the report cherry picking certain elements while leaving others out? Or is it fully factual in its assessment?

If you’ve got a reasoned and thoughtful view on What’s Goes Up and want to share it, Canadian Green Tech will publish it.

Have any insights on why the report may not have provided a complete picture of the electricity price situation in Ontario, send them to Canadian Green Tech and we’ll publish them.

Send your comments to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..