"Energy overpriced, not needed": power deals cut

"If we don't need to buy this electricity right now or within the next couple of years, it seems the right thing to do for ratepayers is not buy it"

That from the provincial energy minister

[province] to cut 10 power deals... - CBC News:

At least 10 contracts with independent power producers will be cancelled and another nine will be put off as [province] looks for ways to cut costs for rate payers ...
[The Minister] said the province has 130 electricity purchase agreements, and in the 19 cases the companies had not met their contractual obligations.
He disputed suggestions the cancellations were a policy shift away from the goals outlined in the Clean Energy Act or support for independent power producers.
"If we don't need to buy this electricity right now or within the next couple of years, it seems the right thing to do for ratepayers is not buy it".
...
Energy overpriced, not needed
For New Democrat energy critic ... the announcement was a bit of an "I told you so," and something from which he drew little comfort.
"It confirms what I and others have been saying for some time that we were purchasing more power than we needed at prices that were not sustainable based on what the market was showing for electricity ..."
...Hydro is in a difficult position because it has a "huge amount" of surplus electricity that it paid a lot of money for and it can't get rid of.
[He] said he'd like ...Hydro to assess all of its contracts with power producers to ensure they're in the public interest, adding the consequences for rate payers are still not known.

The entire article can be read at CBC News.

The article is not referring to Ontario - where a "class b" consumer will see the electricity consumption portion of their bill rising above 20% this summer.

Ontario did address a deal where the contract holders were not in compliance with the original deadlines, but the deal was renegotiated instead of cancelled - and the renegotiated deal, while cancelling wind turbine elements so contentious in intelligent sections of the province, guaranteed the payments for solar "will be the greater of: (i) 10.5 cents per kWh; and (ii) the price as specified in the current price schedule..."

As of August 26, the feed-in tariff price for ground mount solar, greater than 100kW capacity, is 28.8 cents/kWh.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates installations entering service in 2018 will have an average levelized cost of $144.3/MWh, which equates to 14.4 cents or half Ontario's latest FIT offering.

Ontario is expected to be dumping excess generation until 2018.