Ontario Auditor General: Smart meters a total flop, $900M over budget

by Allison Jones, The Canadian Press | see original article

WATCH: Ontario’s auditor general found so-called smart meters that many people have installed on their homes, have cost customers far more than they should have —billions of dollars more. Eric Sorensen looks into the numbers.

TORONTO – People in Ontario are paying billions of dollars extra for electricity thanks to a flawed smart meter program and the above-market rates the province pays most power generators, Ontario’s auditor general reported Tuesday.

Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli disputed the auditor’s conclusions, suggesting her numbers were inaccurate because she didn’t understand the “complex” electricity system.

“The electricity system is very complex, it’s very difficult to understand,” he said. “I can tell you that some of our senior managers in discussing some of these issues with some of the representatives from the auditor general’s office got the feeling that they didn’t understand some of the elements of it.”

Ratepayers will pay $50 billion between 2006 and 2015 because of an extra charge on their electricity bills that covers the gap between guaranteed prices paid to contracted power generators and the market price, auditor general Bonnie Lysyk wrote in her annual report.

WATCH: Ontario energy minister says the Auditor General’s staff doesn’t understand complex energy system

The report also highlighted a “high-risk” loan to a MaRS real estate project in Toronto that left Lysyk uncertain about its benefit to taxpayers, as well as public-private infrastructure projects that are costing billions more than if they were delivered by the public sector.

READ MORE: Highlights from the Auditor General’s report

Take our power please. AG finds Ontario lost $2.6B by selling excess power below cost. #onpoli

— Alan Carter (@ACarterglobal) December 9, 2014

Lysyk also flagged Ontario’s growing debt as a concern. The net debt was more than $267 billion as of March and even if the Liberal government meets its goal of eliminating the deficit in 2017-18, net debt will have risen to $325 billion, Lysyk projected.

In her analysis of the smart meter program, Lysyk found the extra electricity charge, known as global adjustment, has increased by 1,200 per cent between 2006 and 2013 – meanwhile, the average electricity market price has dropped by 46 per cent.

Most residential and small business ratepayers pay time-of-use pricing, enabled by a $2-billion smart-meter program that has so far spent double its projected cost and has not led to the government’s electricity conservation goals being met, Lysyk wrote.

The global adjustment makes up about 70 per cent of the electricity charge on those customers’ bills and as a result the difference between on-peak and off-peak pricing narrowed to the point where it is “undermining time-of-use pricing as an incentive for ratepayers to shift to off-peak,” Lysyk wrote.

Peak electricity demand actually rose slightly between 2004 and 2010, the auditor general wrote.

BLOG from Alan Carter: Why Ontario residents are paying so much for electricity

WATCH: The Auditor General of Ontario found that private-public partnerships for infrastructure projects cost taxpayers $8 billion more than projected.

The energy minister hit back hard, saying the global adjustment is “irrelevant” because it would be on people’s bills with or without smart meters, and he said Lysyk got the numbers wrong.

“Why are my numbers more credible than hers?” Chiarelli said, in response to questions after the report’s release. “First of all the electricity system is very complex. It’s very difficult to understand.”

He pegged the smart meter cost at closer to $1.4 billion, and said Lysyk’s conclusions are premature.

“It remains likely that some significant charges will not be passed onto ratepayers after the Ontario Energy Board has an opportunity to review the appropriate regulatory submissions,” Chiarelli said.

The government decided to mandate smart meters in Ontario before it did a cost-benefit analysis and when the analysis ultimately was done, it was flawed and its projected net benefit of $600 million was overstated by at least $512 million, Lysyk wrote.

“As a result, electricity ratepayers in Ontario are paying significantly more for this initiative in their monthly electricity bills than was originally intended,” she wrote.

The leaders of both opposition parties called Chiarelli’s reaction to the report “unprecedented” arrogance.

“Billions and billions of dollars piled up and what do they do? Turn around and say the auditor isn’t accurate. Yes, Mr. Chiarelli should resign,” said Interim Progressive Conservative Leader Jim Wilson.

“You’ve been ripping off consumers and someone’s head has to fall for it.”

WATCH: Global’s Christina Stevens reports on how smart meters affect the average family.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath called the auditor’s report “troubling” and said the government should take it seriously.

“While we’re entitled to our own opinions, the Liberals aren’t entitled to their own facts and trying to trash the auditor simply doesn’t change that.”