April 4, 2014 – The Ontario Power Authority (OPA) has signed contracts for three new-build waterpower projects owned by municipalities through 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 Inc. in St. Catharines (4.2MW)
• Chaudière Hydro in Ottawa (29.35MW)

The HESOP program offers two streams, explains OPA: a municipal stream and an expansion stream. The municipal stream was available for new waterpower projects larger than 500kW that were the subject of an application to OPA’s FIT (feed-in tariff) Program submitted before June 5, 2010. Applications for HESOP’s municipal stream were accepted from November 4 to December 6, 2013.

The expansion stream will be open to expansion projects at existing non-utility generation facilities under contract with the Ontario Electricity Financial Corp. and at existing facilities under contract with the OPA through the Hydroelectric Contract Initiative. Draft program rules and standard definitions for the new HESOP expansion stream are now posted on OPA’s website for comment from interested stakeholders, communities and potential project developers until April 13, 2014. This stream has a procurement target of up to 40MW.