Opposition offers energy criticism, but not options

The average Ontario household’s electricity bill will reach nearly $200 a month before levelling off in 2030, the provincial government predicted as it released its latest long-term energy plan Thursday morning.

This is the first overhaul to the province’s electricity forecast in four years. It promises more options for people who are willing to change their habits to cut their costs, more rewards for innovations that cut consumption or generate power more cheaply, and more competition among power companies to meet Ontario’s needs. But also, in spite of all of that, prices that continue rising.

The increase is less than the government promised in 2013, when the average bill was supposed to hit $200 a month a few years earlier in 2027. An even earlier forecast had bills at $200 a month by 2020.

The hikes on the average household will be smaller at first, thanks to all the money the government is borrowing to pay electricity bills over the next few years, then we’ll see sharper price increases starting 2022.

The plan also assumes we’ll use less power at home — 750 kilowatt-hours a month in the average household instead of the 800 the government has previously assumed — thanks to conservation and more efficient appliances. That’s part of why the forecast prices have dipped.

But it’s a trick: If you cut your food expenses by not eating, that doesn’t mean food gets cheaper.

Millions of electric cars will take up the power we don’t use in our houses and apartments, along with heavyduty electric transit systems like the City of Ottawa’s light-rail lines.

Charging an electric car takes a lot of juice at once. Charging is usually done at night, which is good because that’s when demand is low, but also potentially stressing the power supply to residential neighbourhoods.

Local distribution companies might have to beef up their systems, and charge more for the upgrades.

Some companies are already experimenting with more flexible supply plans for consumers to try to smooth out demand. If you charge an electric car at night, maybe you pay less for a kilowatt-hour after 9 p.m. but agree to pay a lot more during the day, for instance. Or vice-versa.

Of course, smart meters were supposed to make it easier for us to take control of our electricity use. They sort of did, but the benefits of shifting your electricity use to cheaper times haven’t been huge, and the base price of power kept going up.

London Hydro is experimenting with a program called Green Button, which collects masses of information on household power-use so people can compare themselves to neighbours and relatives, understand how much electricity different appliances really use, and potentially be rewarded for saving electricity.

The provincial government is doing away with long-term contracts for power generation. When a contract expires or it’s time to close an old nuclear reactor, the province wants more bidding, more competition among would-be suppliers.

All of this is, still, about slowing the rate of increase to people’s power bills. There’s no prospect of lowering them, unless you have a roof you cover with solar panels or can install windmills in your yard.

“The Wynne Liberals are untrustworthy, especially when it comes to Ontarians’ electricity bills,” Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown said in response. “Despite Liberal spin, it’s clear: rates will continue to skyrocket to the highest they’ve ever been after the next election.”

“It’s shocking to see a government doubling down on overpriced private contracts when the people of Ontario have said clearly that they are against privatization of the hydro system, and when we know it will mean higher prices and less control over our hydro bills,” New Democrat energy critic Peter Tabuns said.

But these are criticisms, not alternatives.

Ontarians would be better served with conservative and progressive options for the province’s secondbiggest challenge after health care, but we need our conservative and progressive parties to provide them. It’s the opposition’s job to oppose and criticize.

But with an election imminent in the spring, it’s now also their job to offer real alternatives.