Ontario spending millions to halt surplus electricity production

CTV's Paul Bliss reports on Ontario's power glut - specifically on costs of curtailing production at Bruce nuclear.

Exclusive: Ontario spending millions to halt surplus electricity production | CTV Toronto News:

As Ontario experiences a record year for surplus electricity production, the province is no longer paying the United States to take the extra power off the grid, CTV Toronto has learned.
Ontario regularly produces a glut of electricity, and in the past, the province has paid American states and Quebec to alleviate the system.
CTV Toronto’s Paul Bliss has learned that the privately-owned Bruce Power plant in Tiverton, Ont., is periodically asked to shut down one of its massive reactors, or alternatively, vent steam instead of producing electricity. When that happens, the province must still pay the plant for the down time.
Bruce Power has turned five units off at different times this year to cut supply for a total down time of 40 days. Since the plant is paid about $1 million per day, it cost Ontario $40 million for reactors to idle.
Bruce also conducted steam diversions from turbines to cut power production 84 times this year, which is the equivalent of approximately 22 unit days offline. For that, the plant was paid $22 million to vent steam into the air instead of operating turbines.
In total, $62 million was paid to the Bruce plant this year to suppress electricity production.
There is no way to store surplus electricity -- it can only be used immediately, exported or switched off.

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