Terminate Ontario wind, solar contracts, says Fraser report.

ostly wind and solar project contracts are primarily to blame for Ontario's rising power prices, according to a Fraser Institute study released Oct. 30.

The 40-page report co-authored by Ross McKitrick and Tom Adams entitled, "What goes up, Ontario's soaring electricity prices and how to get them down," details how the province's annual power cost has risen by more than 50 per cent since 2004, while wholesale market prices have been declining.

The focus of the public policy think-tank's study is the so-called Global Adjustment, what they describe as a "non-market mechanism that now dominates power pricing in Ontario."

The provincial government's decision to close its coal-fired power plants in favour of entering into long-term contracts with renewable energy companies that charge the Ontario Power Authority (the OPA) with "higher-than-market-value prices" for power has resulted in an extra charge being slapped on consumer electricity bills called the Global Adjustment.

"In the U.S.. power rates have been falling but Ontarians are paying more than ever because of the Global Adjustment," said Tom Adams, independent energy analyst and study co-author.

The report concludes that the solution is for the province to halt all new hydroelectric, wind and solar projects, and terminate, "where possible," all existing contracts between renewable energy companies and the OPA.

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