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TORONTO - Ontario's biggest electricity consumers found themselves paying negative prices for power on Sunday - an anomaly that stems from too much supply and too little demand, the province's Independent Electricity System Operator said Wednesday.
At one point, large consumers - those that pay market prices for electricity and consume more than $2,000 worth of power a month - were actually earning $9.41 for every megawatt hour.
In other words, utilities that had no choice but to maintain production, like nuclear power plants that require time to slow down or speed up generation, were actually paying consumers to buy their electricity.
"That is the highest negative price we've seen since the market opened in 2002," spokesman Terry Young said.
The anomaly occurred between 5 and 7 a.m. and again at midnight Sunday.
The last time it happened was on February 18, Family Day and before that, last Labour Day, Young said, adding Ontario's "never seen this much on one day."
"What we had was a surplus generation and low demand for electricity," he explained, adding consumption tends to be lower on Sundays and early mornings. That's also true of the so-called shoulder season, when people have their heat off and aren't yet using air conditioners.
"Sometimes when you have more power you can also export it and we probably weren't exporting a lot of it at that hour as well."
Noting the province's supply has "improved significantly" in the last few years, Young said provincial plans to add another 5,000 megawatts of supply to the grid in the coming 18 months could mean more negative pricing in the future.
"You could see that," he said. "At this point it's hard to predict. It just depends on what generation is available, but there's no question we are in a better supply picture than we were, and the supply picture is improving, and the supply picture does play a factor with the price."
Because most residential consumers pay regulated prices for power, Sunday's cost savings is averaged out over a period of time and won't likely be noticeable to the average customer.
"Those who would benefit last Sunday would be those who are really the larger customers. The industries, the manufacturers, the businesses that might have been operating at that time," he said.
What it does show is just how much people with smart meters, which track when electricity is consumed, can save if they pay attention to when they're using electricity, he said.
"You have the ability to benefit if you run your laundry on the weekend or run your dishwasher at night," he said.
"Electricity costs less at different times and I think last weekend you saw just how much less it can cost."
At one point, large consumers - those that pay market prices for electricity and consume more than $2,000 worth of power a month - were actually earning $9.41 for every megawatt hour.
In other words, utilities that had no choice but to maintain production, like nuclear power plants that require time to slow down or speed up generation, were actually paying consumers to buy their electricity.
"That is the highest negative price we've seen since the market opened in 2002," spokesman Terry Young said.
The anomaly occurred between 5 and 7 a.m. and again at midnight Sunday.
The last time it happened was on February 18, Family Day and before that, last Labour Day, Young said, adding Ontario's "never seen this much on one day."
"What we had was a surplus generation and low demand for electricity," he explained, adding consumption tends to be lower on Sundays and early mornings. That's also true of the so-called shoulder season, when people have their heat off and aren't yet using air conditioners.
"Sometimes when you have more power you can also export it and we probably weren't exporting a lot of it at that hour as well."
Noting the province's supply has "improved significantly" in the last few years, Young said provincial plans to add another 5,000 megawatts of supply to the grid in the coming 18 months could mean more negative pricing in the future.
"You could see that," he said. "At this point it's hard to predict. It just depends on what generation is available, but there's no question we are in a better supply picture than we were, and the supply picture is improving, and the supply picture does play a factor with the price."
Because most residential consumers pay regulated prices for power, Sunday's cost savings is averaged out over a period of time and won't likely be noticeable to the average customer.
"Those who would benefit last Sunday would be those who are really the larger customers. The industries, the manufacturers, the businesses that might have been operating at that time," he said.
What it does show is just how much people with smart meters, which track when electricity is consumed, can save if they pay attention to when they're using electricity, he said.
"You have the ability to benefit if you run your laundry on the weekend or run your dishwasher at night," he said.
"Electricity costs less at different times and I think last weekend you saw just how much less it can cost."
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