I wish I was an electrical engineer so I could know if I was seeing a boondoggle or not. The Federal Government has announced that PEI is to get a 30 million dollar electricity cable to assist in its wind generation plans:
The federal government has announced money to build a third electrical cable to the mainland so that the Island can export wind power. Environment Minister Stephane Dion announced the plan during a visit to the Island Friday. Dion said Ottawa could put $30 million into the project. Dion used strong language to describe the province's plan to generate 350 megawatts of electricity by 2015. "I call it a radical change; I call it a revolution," he said. Wind power comes and goes with the wind, and the plan had always been to export any power produced when Islanders didn't need it. But the question of how to get that surplus electicity to the mainland remained. The two existing transmission cables under the Northumberland Strait are at full capacity.Here is what I know as I do the math in my head:
- Currently PEI has roughly a 200 megawatt draw and two 100 megawatt cables supplying that draw.
- by generating locally you reduce demand on the cable in that it does not need to provide to PEI what PEI is providing for itself.
- by adding a third cable and no generation you will cover any expansion in PEI's need for electricity for the next fifty years or so.
- PEI is encouraging certain wind turbine developments but in smaller groupings than, say, exist or are being built in upstate New York right now.
- PEI is planning not only wind turbines but a hydrogen generation plant to provide storage for the electricity generated to provide local power for later use when the wind does not blow. This will use up surplus.
- If PEI is moving to self sufficiency by 2015 by generating 350 megawatts and having the capactity to store the power from high wind days for use on low power days, it will have 350 megawatt generation minus 200 or 225, say, megawatt draw locally leaving 125 or 150 megawatts to export. It currently has 200 megawatts of export capacity in this scenerio on the existing cable.
- Why is the third cable adding the 200th to 300th megawatts out needed in this system? And is there a plan to beef up the transmission route across New Brunswick to Maine? That would be required to make a US market for the power. How much will that cost?
Comments
'nee - November 21, 2005 12:26 pm
I can't call myself an engineer (but I am a "technologist", fancy) - from where I sit your math is fine. However, if they're planning on adding generating capability it may be cheaper to build in the ability to handle a third cable at the generating station now than later. They may also want to spread out the draw over several cables for redundancy reasons; it makes maintenance easier if you have more avenues that you can shunt power traffic through, and if they have any sort of complex setup it might be wise. They may also be planning on expanding generation capability in the future future. It's probably a bit overkill, but they're thinking bright and rosy thoughts about green energy (while OPG is backing out of it as fast as it can, so that's interesting).
Also, if the wind plan fails and they think PEI's consumption of power will increase, then it's covering their asses for that import growth - it can be used for receiving as easily as sending power.
The hydrogen generating plant is a great idea; it will mean that they can generate power when it's windy and store it for when it's needed. Currently hydro plants simply shut down their dams, or power companies burn less coal when demand is lowest (10:00am, 3:00pm, >12:00am) - a wind station couldn't do that, and they can't sell power onto the grid when it's not in demand. It's a very smart idea.
Also, they don't need to transmit to the US directly - it can go into the grid on the Canadian side (and let the fed deal with the infrastructure) and still be credited to PEI. It would not be cheap to build a substation to integrate into the US grid from PEI, especially since they already exist off the island.
ALan - November 21, 2005 12:51 pm
Hey, you are a wind nerd, too. The NB point is actually a specific bit of knowledge I have (as a tiny utility lawyer) and so I know there is a 50 km stretch from the NB to NS mainline that may have to be upgraded as well. And the NB-Maine corridor is not, as I recall, as not beefy as it may have to be. Given local demand as well as the sorts of commodities you can make off of electricity, PEI's market is really in the US. All interesting your redundancy point is a good one. I was always for (and may have argued in the past here about) the third cable as defeating the need for more expensive wind power development for PEI's needs. They have talked about local gas generation, etc, but that means building a generator that costs way more than the cable to perform the same function. If - and only if - they go into the realm of 500 wind turbines are they getting to the scale that generation makes sense. But you still have all the extra costs of adding capacity between them and the market and that gets added to the cost of the electricity. Not to mention that the PEI government is not suggesting anywhere near the required scale will be built. Lots of politics.
'nee - November 22, 2005 1:01 am
I'm into green power, as I maintain a solar array installation as part of werk. Our power is costing us $0.88/kWh currently, so I am very interested in the math behind the decisions - it's worth it if we decide that breathing in particulate from coal plants is greater than, say, $0.50/kWh, right? Off topic, but I am glad to see that PEI is at least thinking about it, even if it is a tad boondoggley: OPG is offically out of green power now and dusting their hands on their pants.
Alan - November 22, 2005 8:50 am
There is little done in PEI which does not have that tinge given its basic economic unviability.
LCG in Nova Scotia - November 22, 2005 3:59 pm
I am an engineer, tho not electrical. Your math is ok, but there is a distinction that you have not included. I do know there is a demand in the US for so called "green energy" and that the american utilities will pay a premium for power that meets their definition of green energy. I am speculating that while we northerners merrily go on using coal generated power (and hastening mankind's conclusion) this third line to the mainland may be for the added flexibility required to account for the "green energy" on the grid.
Another thing that has not been brought up, the storage of energy as hydrogen is a neat idea, though I have no idea how efficient this process is (ie: how much of the energy is lost by converting energy to H2 and then back to energy again) The conversion process is a major undertaking, a 350MW generating station capable of burning hydrogen has to be built, a facilty for generating hydrogen, and a storage facility, presumably all together on the same site. And of course the island will have to increase the wind generating capacity from its current 5% to the 100% goal, assuming 100% operating efficiency from all turbines all the time, which has been well short of Nova Scotia's experience.
If PEI actually does achieve the above, I would just add a caution about signing any deals with Quebec.
Alan - May 4, 2006 9:53 am
Ah, at least Harper had the sense to kill the thing off in this week's budget.