Ontario Secures $800 Million Investment In Province's Energy Infrastructure

Toronto — The Ontario Power Authority has signed contracts with seven high-efficiency combined heat and power projects (also known as co-generation) across Ontario, with a combined electrical capacity of 414 MW.

The contracts are the culmination of the first phase of a competitive 1,000MW procurement process — the first of its kind in Canada — designed to take advantage of situations where larger industries or groups of users require both electricity and thermal energy for industrial use, heating or cooling. Co-generation is considered an efficient form of fossil fuel electricity generation — getting the most overall energy out of a fuel source.

The seven projects represent a total capital investment of some $800 million and range in size from a 2MW district energy project in Oshawa to a 236MW industrial application in Thorold. Commercial operation dates range from February 2008 to May 2010.

"Developing more distributed energy such as these cogeneration projects is key to having a balanced, reliable and secure electricity system for Ontario," said Energy Minister Dwight Duncan.

"The projects are diverse in type and location, providing electricity and efficient thermal energy to Ontario industry and communities," said Paul Bradley, OPA Vice President of Electricity Resources. "They represent the high efficiency we should be striving for in Ontario's future power projects."

The procurement identified a number of projects which, because of some of the challenges in developing co-generation, did not result in a submission to the process. The OPA plans to address these issues in a next phase of procurement. Work on Phase Two will begin shortly leading to additional contract announcements by mid-2007.

"We learned that there is a great deal of interest in co-generation, but that it will take time and experience to fully engage that potential," Bradley added.

SOURCE: Ontario Power Authority