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Category:	Wind - Connection
Subject:	Northern Ontario and Prosperity
ID:	10430
Date:	4/25/2009
Question:	We have been planning wind project in North eastern Ontario for a few years now. This area has been constrained to 50MW from the beginning of RFP 1 until the cancellation of RESOP in May 2008 - to date we do not know where transmission capability stands. The review of the FIT program is positive - however we are nervous about the Economic Test for the Area. We are afraid that the same constraints will exist within this new FIT program. We feel that 5 years waiting for a FIT type program to come about and then the uncertainty of the EConomic Test and the time it takes to complete transmission builds - it maybe too little to late. Other areas of the province have benefited from the 5 previous renewable energy uptakes. The full title of the act is "Green energy and Green ECONOMY" - Does that OPA have a mandate to disperse the prosperity of the 50,000 jobs by proportion to different regions of the province? Will this be measured?
Answer:	The proposed GEA and the design of OPA's FIT is intended to result in new investment in transmission that will enable new generation projects throughout the province. Some projects will be able to connect immediately and some will have to await distribution or transmission expansion.