The Ontario Power Authority (OPA) has signed agreements for three new waterpower projects owned by Ontario municipalities under the municipal stream of the Hydroelectric Standard Offer Program (HESOP).

All three projects have majority municipal ownership and will be developed by Renfrew Power Generation in Horton Township (1.7MW), St. Catharines Hydro Generation in St. Catharines (4.2MW) and Chaudière Hydro in Ottawa (29.35MW).

The OPA’s HESOP program offers two streams, a municipal stream and an expansion stream. The streams are developed to procure new hydroelectric capacity.

The municipal stream was available for new waterpower projects larger than 500kW that were the subject of an application to the OPA’s Feed-in Tariff Program submitted before 5 June 2010.

Applications for HESOP’s municipal stream were accepted from 4 November 2013 to 6 December 2013.

The expansion stream will be available for incremental hydroelectric capacity at existing non-utility generation facilities under contract with the Ontario Electricity Financial Corporation and the Hydroelectric Contract Initiative.

"The streams are developed to procure new hydroelectric capacity."

The new HESOP expansion stream has a procurement target of up to 40MW.

Ontario minister of energy Bob Chiarelli said, "Waterpower is an important part of Ontario’s clean energy supply mix. These new facilities will provide local benefits and contribute clean, reliable and affordable hydropower to the grid for years to come."

OPA CEO Colin Andersen said, "The Ontario Power Authority is pleased at this opportunity to work with municipalities to ensure a safe, reliable and sustainable electricity system for Ontario. These three waterpower projects are representative of the OPA’s focus in working with communities across Ontario in the planning and siting of electricity infrastructure."

Energy