Solar microFIT on hold...again!

[Wilco Vercoelen]

The application period is now closed. New applications are not being accepted.:mad:
http://microfit.powerauthority.on.ca/

Where is the consistency and stability in the Ontario market?

[Rob Beckers]

Wilco, I was going to post the same but you beat me to it.

One has to wonder; is the OPA just a bunch of willing-but-hopelessly-incompetent career bureaucrats, or are they actually getting a kick out of purposely running what could have been a good program into the ground?

This comes after the last episode of the OPA's utter lack of any indication of public policy management skills, where the MicroFIT program was shut down for close to a year, and their public statements on how a new and improved OPA was going to be more transparent, with a board of industry people having a say in the management no less.

Well, not only was there absolutely no transparency, we had in fact to learn of this latest closure through the rejection notice of one of our customers. Never was there so much as even a little E-mail message posted to one of their mailing lists (I'm subscribed to all of them). The message on their Web site came a little later.

It really is not rocket science to manage this program in a way that keeps everyone in the loop, and doesn't catch those who make their living with it off-guard every single time. How about setting a closure date about 2 months ahead of time, announcing it widely, and allowing anyone that wants to apply do so? Sure, there may be a bit of a run (though I doubt it will amount to much), possibly it would have gone slightly over the target allocation, but would it be so hard to align allocations with the next batch to make up for that?

Even better, how about just silently rolling from one allocation into the next, since the Ministry of Energy has already approved the next 30 MW anyway?

Sure, rates have to change at some point too, but again, how hard is it to come up with a mechanism that does so pro-actively, rather than retro-actively. Let people know what's coming, not what has been!

Hint: You don't even have to re-invent the wheel here, this has been done in a far better way in other countries. Most notably Germany. It must have been the not-invented-here syndrome that made the OPA come with own unique way of screwing up a good idea!

I won't even get started about that change from 12 to 6 months offers. Clearly the OPA never installed a PV array between November and March, with 3 feet of snow on the roof.

Or that other recent debacle that got ignored kind of silently, where a great many applications of the last small FIT window got rejected on technicalities, thus loosing their $500 deposit, and having to re-apply at a much later time (and a lower rate).

My next book title: "The OPA and the Art of Incompetency".
I'm expecting this to be a best-seller at business and public policy schools for decades to come, to teach the next batch of career bureaucrats how not to run a program. Let's hope they'll learn from it...

-RoB-

[Wilco Vercoelen]

Hi Rob,

I am strengthened by your remarks and it clearly demonstrates that more solar installers/distributors are not happy with the OPA handling the program. I am positive that many will read your book but I am not so confident that people within the Government or the OPA will actually read or learn from it.
This will not likely be one of their objectives or priorities.

I have been thinking a lot about the Government’s (& OPA) purpose of the program and it is evident that the main priority is the increase the renewable energy supply in the province. How this is being achieved is of less importance. How the government defines Success of the Program is simply measured by the amount of MW where contracted/commissioned and based on that metric alone… Yes, they are successful.

Yes Green Jobs were created, 31,000 in all, but who, what, when, how these jobs were created and in what way, and how accurate the number actually is simply does not matter. They are there on their presentation sheet in front of a crowd willing to listen, and then this is what counts.
Heck, I am not too sure of the majority is long term. The WTO ruling will have effect, and unless there is solid commitment in the Long Term Energy Plan-LTEP and from all political parties to have Green Jobs seeing as one of the Pillars for the economy we can see changes in the numbers on the horizon fairly quick with the next election as there are budgets presented every year…

Yes, the FIT, that is another topic for discussion as the OPA demonstrates how “perfectly” they manage this program.

Having said all this, I can only come to one reason suspending the program like this? Looking from OPA’s perspective is simply giving themselves some breathing space for all the hard work they have done.
Too bad their salary is not suspended either!

[Rob Beckers]

Having said all this, I can only come to one reason suspending the program like this? Looking from OPA’s perspective is simply giving themselves some breathing space for all the hard work they have done.
Too bad their salary is not suspended either!

LOL! Great remark Wilco! :bigsmile:

Sigh... It just makes me sad to see what could be a great program, and a great opportunity for the industry, the government, Ontario (and even Canada) managed so poorly. The province is getting 20% out of this when it could have been 110% (as in creating long-term jobs, green energy, a new industry, world standing, expertise, bragging rights).

Regarding the feedback I hear from installers about the latest round of small FIT, I can't even print those comments. I've talked to many who saw their applications (on their customer's behalf) rejected on very simple technicalities that could have been rectified with little effort on both the OPA and the installers' behalf. Most (if not all) stemmed simply from unclear instructions and a misunderstanding by the applicant. Yet, the OPA choose the blunt 'solution' of simply rejecting the applications, thus forfeiting the $500 deposit of the applicant, and postponing their application to the next round (when? what rate?).

On the job-creation side, I don't think the OPA nor the ministry counts those jobs lost because the businesses go bankrupt, due to the incompetency with which the program is run. It's all about sound bites, spin, and good news. Who cares about reality!

It is all so unnecessary. That's the sad part...

-RoB-

[Wilco Vercoelen]

I have sent an open letter to the Minister. For the people that are interested, you can read it here: http://www.dommelvalley.ca/data/Open-letter-to-Hon-Bob-Chiarelli.pdf

[Rob Beckers]

Good letter Wilco! All good points.
Hopefully it will make a difference.

-RoB-