Ontario Power Generation (OPG) is to shed 2000 jobs by downsizing its operation by 17% over the next two years. In a shake-up-up expected to cost the company C$400 million ($250 million), the company seeks to lease its fossil plants, but it will retain the nuclear facilities at Darlington and Pickering.
OPG pointed out that, as part of the restructuring of the Ontario electricity market and to encourage competition in the marketplace, it has a mandate to "de-control" some of its facilities, thus reducing its asset base. Towards the end of last year, the government of Ontario confirmed that the province's electricity industry will open to competition on 1 May, 2002.
Last year OPG leased the Bruce nuclear facility to Bruce Power. Now it will relocate all remaining nuclear-related head-office staff to Durham Region, where Darlington and Pickering nuclear plants are located.
The restructuring comes as a number of costly initiatives are coming to an end. These include the Pickering A restart, and the company's Integrated Improvement Plan.
• Ontario Power Generation (OPG) is gearing up for deregulation by installing Industrial Peer-to Peer's eDNA real-time data historian in all of its generating stations. eDNA captures, archives and time-stamps mountains of real-time data from systems operation sources, such as heat rates, fuel costs and transmissions, and puts it on the Internet for preventative maintenance, forecasting and other reporting and analytical functions (see NEI November 2001, p38).
As its approaches deregulation, OPG will be able to use eDNA to establish enterprise-wide processes that, for example, allow executives to detail real-time plant information.
