Read the original Fact Sheet from Ontario Clean Air Alliance, with maps of proposed routes through East Toronto - along the Don Valley Parkway, Donlands Ave. or Greenwood to the bay.

The OPA is considering three possible routes for a new transmission line to bring more electricity to downtown Toronto.

One of the routes being considered by the OPA is through East Toronto from the Parkway Transformer Station in Markham to the Hearn Transformer Station near the mouth of the Don River on the Toronto waterfront. It would consist of three new 230 kilovolt circuits that would be routed along a combination of existing electricity transmission corridors and road allowances. The line would consist of a combination of overhead and underground transmission wires. From the Parkway Transformer Station there are two alternative north-south corridors the line could take through Markham and Scarborough to reach the Leaside Transformer Station. From the Leaside Transformer Station, there are at least three possible routes that the line could take to reach the Hearn Transformer Station. The OPA and Hydro One have refused to publicly state their preferred route for the transmission line.

The East Toronto Transmission Line would cost approximately $600 million.

According to the OPA, it may be needed by 2015 (in the absence of alternative efforts to address Toronto’s supply needs).

The OPA’s assumptions and plans are both heavily weighted in favour of a conventional “hub and spoke” electricity system, where a handful of large generating stations distribute power over long-distance transmission lines. The result is a small group of inefficient and inflexible generating stations feeding power to consumers over long distances, a system that maximizes power losses (with transmission line losses peaking when electricity demand is highest, but averaging 8% in Ontario) and vulnerability to storm damage, accidents or intentional disruption.

Building such lines through densely developed communities also entails significant disruption – these high-voltage systems require corridors as wide as a major arterial road and towers as high as a 10-storey building or will require rebuilding existing roadways to accommodate large underground conduits.

Currently, Toronto is highly reliant on long-distance power transmission with just 2% of the electricity consumed within the city actually produced within its boundaries. The East Toronto Transmission Line would further cement the city’s reliance on three nuclear stations that have been prone to unexpected breakdowns and other performance problems.

This outdated approach is in stark contrast to what is happening in jurisdictions such as New York City, where regulations require that the City be able to generate 80% of the electric-ity it needs within its municipal boundaries in order to ensure stability and security of supply.

A better alternative to meet Toronto’s electricity needs consists of an integrated combination of energy conservation and efficiency, new renewables and natural gas-fired combined heat and power plants. This combination will provide the city with a more reliable, cost effective and efficient electricity system, and will directly contribute to better air quality and a reduced contribution to global warming from the city itself.

Toronto Hydro is Ontario’s best energy conservation utility. As a result of Toronto Hydro’s conservation programs, Toronto’s peak day electricity demand in 2006 declined relative to 2005. In fact, in 2006 Toronto bucked a province-wide increase in peak day demand. Nevertheless, there is much more that Toronto Hydro can do to reduce our electricity consumption and bills and to prove that the OPA’s demand forecasts are highly unlikely to materialize.

On the supply side, there are numerous cost-effective renewable options to meet Toronto’s electricity needs that can be developed right now, including hybrid solar/electric water heaters, expanded deep lake water cooling, geothermal heat pumps, using wet wastes to produce electricity and compost, and a wind farm near the Scarborough Bluffs in Lake Ontario. These made-in-Toronto solutions will create low or zero emission power where it is needed.

According to Dr. Magda Havas of Trent University, electromagnetic field exposure has been associated with miscarriages, Lou Gehrig’s disease, electrical hypersensitivity, and breast cancer, as well as both nervous system tumors and leukemia among children and adults.

Meanwhile, virtually every building in Toronto uses natural gas to provide just one service, namely, heating. It is much more efficient to use natural gas to simultaneously produce two or three services, namely heat, power and cooling. A natural gas-fired combined heat and power or tri-genera-tion plant can have an overall energy efficiency of 80-90% versus the 30% energy efficiency of a nuclear reactor. We need to create a thousand points of light across Toronto by converting our schools, recreation centres, hospitals, shop-ping centres, condominiums, office towers and factories into small-scale power plants.

Contact Mayor David Miller and your Member of Provincial Parliament and let them know that you want a Made-in-Toronto solution to our electricity needs, not more nuclear power via the proposed East Toronto Transmission Line.

Tell them that $600 million can be better spent on efficiency, renewable power and combined heat and power programs that will produce substantially greater benefits and help make Toronto the greenest city in North America.