Wind Blog
Glen Estill
March 7, 2012
Ontario Highlands Friends of Wind has released a devastating review on the Auditor General’s “report” on renewable energy procurement in Ontario. The review’s primary author, Malcolm Hamilton, a retired management consultant from McKinsey, and retired wind developer, exposes many new flaws in the Auditor’s “report”. A summary can be found here.
I was especially impressed with how Hamilton described the top level objectives, that were totally missed by the Auditor General. Hamilton points out that the government struggles to control Ontario Hydra, which replaced the previous difficult to control Ontario Hydro. Simply put, implementing change in the change resistant culture of the IESO, Hydro One, the OPA, OEB etc., is hugely challenging. This is something the Auditor General didn’t even address.
The review is the most devastating commentary I have seen, drawing attention to the Auditor’s lack of references, blind acceptance of discredited report from overseas, many funded by fossil or climate deniers, and even lack of understanding of costs. After all, the Auditor General used a number of platitudes on cost, without publishing why they thought something was expensive. If you try to compare wind with natural gas, but don’t publish your future price of natural gas, you don’t really have much of a comparison, do you? And how do you forecast the price of natural gas in 20 years anyways? Hamilton’s review of the Auditors work in this area is dead right.
This is a must read for anyone commenting on or developing policy in the electricity sector in Ontario.
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