Alberta Power News Round Up – September 19th, 2017
- Samantha Hoffman, P.Eng.
- Sep 20, 2017
- 4 min read
Alberta News
The Balancing Pool Returns Sundance B and C PPAs to TransAlta
The Balancing Pool has returned the Sundance B and C power purchase arrangements (PPAs) to TransAlta effective March 31, 2018. Sundance A will expire at the end of 2017, so it was not necessary to return this PPA.
No decision has been made on the remaining two PPAs (Battleriver and Keephills) owned by ENMAX.
Last year TransCanada, ASTC Power Partnership, Enmax and Capital Power notified the Balancing Pool of their intention to return PPAs to the Balancing Pool following an increase to the provincial carbon levy on heavy emitters.
Below is a list of returned PPAs from the Balancing Pool's website:
The carbon levy increase triggered the opt-out clause.
This clause allowed buyers of PPAs to opt out if there was a significant change in law that made the arrangements unprofitable.
The government contends that this clause was added unlawfully.
The Government then filed a suit to block the termination of these PPAs in 2016. It reached agreements with Capital Power (Sundance C), ASTC Power Partnership (Sundance B) and TransCanada (Sundance A and Sheerness) in late 2016.
The Balancing Pool has stated that until ENMAX reaches an agreement with the Alberta Government, it cannot terminate the Keephills and Battle River PPAs.
ENMAX has since filed a lawsuit with the Balancing Pool. ENMAX's suit claims that the Balancing Pool is failing its mandate as it has not made a decision on the termination of the PPAs in a timely manner.
The Balancing Pool has stated that it estimates that terminating these two PPAs would save consumers up to $336 million.
Alberta Moves Closer to Implementing a Capacity Market
The Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) held a stakeholder session where it outlined the work that has been completed on the transition to a capacity market.
The capacity market is intended to encourage investment in new generation, storage and demand side resources (load that signs an agreement to reduce power consumption when called upon) by creating a market for capacity or power that will be provided in the future.
I attended the stakeholder session and some of the takeaways that I got included (note that is still subject to possible change by the Alberta Government):
The AESO will oversee the auctions.
The base auction will be held three years prior to the commitment period with two re-balancing auctions re-balancing auctions held prior to this period. Both new and existing resources would be on the same auction.
The delivery period would be one year.
The auctions will be held in addition to the existing energy market. It has not been determined if the money paid for capacity in the capacity market will be deducted from the costs paid for energy in the wholesale energy market or if the markets will be allowed to balance on their own.
Generators that are participating in the Renewable Energy Program 1 (REP 1) will not be allowed to participate in the Capacity Market.
Storage, interties (imported power from BC, Montana or Saskatchewan) and demand response will be allowed to bid in.
Financial penalties would charged for under-performers. It has not been determined where this money would go. It could be giving to over-performers or it could be returned to customers.
Altalink Negotiates a Settlement to Save Consumers 50 Million by the End of 2018
AltaLink and consumer groups reach and agreement to save consumers 50 million in 2017 and 2018. This includes a reduction of $15.5 million in operating costs and $5 million in other cost savings.
Altalink will also refund $31.4 million of depreciation costs as newer transmission builds are expected to have longer lives.
Canadian and World News
Hackers Infiltrate the American Power Grid
Security firm Symantec has warned that a group of hackers called Dragonfly 2.0 gained access to power grid operations across the US and Turkey. These groups have been linked to Russia.
This would have allowed them to control high voltage equipment such as circuit breakers which allow them to create outages in the American power system.
The hackers exploited the lack of separation between the company’s IT networks and their operational controls. They used spearphishing emails which trick users into opening attachments (for example by pretending to be an invitation to a party). This allowed them to gain remote access to their operational controls.
Symantec has stated that the number of detected attacks has declined which would indicate that utilities are successfully responding to the attacks.
NERC, the organization which ensures utilities’ compliance with regulatory standards have implement the Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) standards to ensure utilities across North American are less vulnerable to these kinds of attacks.
Tesla Plans to Expand Its Electric Vehicle Charging Network Across Canada
Tesla will be installing over a hundred new charging stations across the Trans-Canada Highway (excluding Newfoundland). This will quadruple the number of stations currently in Canada.
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