Ontario Power Generation

Ontario Power Generation was established in April 1999 as part of plans by the Progressive Conservative government of Premier Mike Harris to privatize the assets of Ontario Hydro and deregulate the province's electricity market. OPG was one of the five successor corporations to Ontario Hydro and assumed ownership of all generating stations.

New build at Darlington plant

OPG has also begun the process of building up to four new nuclear units at the site of its Darlington Nuclear Generating Station but in October 2013, the province of Ontario declared that the Darlington new build project would not be part of Ontario's long-term energy plan, citing the high capital cost estimates and energy surplus in the province at the time of the announcement.

Commercial operations in Pickering

In January 2016, the province of Ontario approved plans to pursue continued operation of the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station to 2024.

OPG will work with the Ministry of Energy, the Independent Electricity System Operator and the Ontario Energy Board to pursue continued operation of the Pickering Station to 2024. All six units would operate until 2022; two units would then shut down and four units would operate to 2024. Extending Pickering's operation will ensure a reliable, clean source of base load electricity during refurbishment of the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station and the initial Bruce Nuclear refurbishments.

Any plan to extend Pickering's life requires approval from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC). OPG is currently working on a licence application to the CNSC for approval in 2018.

Controversies and criticism

Prior to shutting down its coal-fueled generating stations, OPG attracted considerable controversy for the operation of coal-fired generating stations, which ranked among Canada's largest individual air pollution sources. This was mostly because Nanticoke housed a massive 3,900 MW of generation capacity in one site: it produced "the most pollution in one site" despite being a reasonably clean plant per megawatt of power. Nanticoke Generating Station was North America's largest coal-fired generating station and the single largest air pollution source for southern Ontario and northern New York state, attracting considerable criticism from environmentalists and legislators in both jurisdictions. OPG's Lambton Generating Station was the second largest air polluter in the province. The Liberal government of Dalton McGuinty came to power in 2003 with a promise to phase out coal generation by 2007. However, for various operational and demand reasons this was not possible until 2014, when the last coal was burned in OPG's stations.

The company also endured significant criticism concerning the slow return to operation of some of its nuclear generating stations which had been shut down by the Northeast blackout of 2003. The problem was that all but one of the reactors were tripped and allowed to poison out, preventing an early reconnection to the electricity grid. Once shut down, all nuclear reactors take several days to return to service.

Another source of criticism was the extended and expensive refit to the reactor Unit 4 at the Pickering A Nuclear Station. In late 2003, the incoming Liberal government fired the three most senior executives at OPG on the heels of a report that the retrofit of a single reactor at the Pickering nuclear plant had come in significantly over budget and three years behind schedule. The government also accepted the resignation of all remaining board members. Management underestimated the amount of work and complexity of the Unit 4 refurbishment project and failed to do a complete scope analysis before starting on the project. Due to the uproar over the large cost overruns and delays, an independent review committee was commissioned to examine the future role of OPG in the electricity sector; the future structure of OPG; the appropriate corporate governance and senior management structure; and the potential refurbishing of Pickering A Units 1, 2, and 3. Former federal Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister John Manley chaired the review committee. Peter Godsoe, Chairman of the Bank of Nova Scotia, and Jake Epp, a former federal Cabinet Minister, Chair of the Pickering A Review Panel, and interim Chairman of OPG, also sat on the committee.

The experience of refurbishing Pickering A Unit 1 was significantly different with a much tighter adherence to schedule and budget. Unit 1 was returned to service in November 2005 providing 542 MW of generating capacity for Ontario's electricity system. It was decided that Pickering Units 2 and 3 would not be restarted as the business case could not be made.

In early December 2015, Ontario's Auditor General pointed out that OPG was importing wood products from Europe to burn at the Thunder Bay station "pushing the cost of the electricity it generates to 25 times higher than other biomass generators", or $1,600 per MWh. Subsequently, Ontario's

Development and Mines Minister Michael Gravelle stated that OPG was seeking a local company to produce the biomass fuel.