Alberta Power News Round Up – October 3rd, 2017
- Samantha Hoffman, P.Eng.
- Oct 3, 2017
- 4 min read
Alberta News
The Balancing Pool in Court with ENMAX this Week Over PPAs
ENMAX is seeking an interim injunction in court this week which would force the Balancing Pools to complete their assessment and verification of the Keephills PPA which ENMAX requested to return the Keephills PPA in May, 2016.
The Balancing Pool has stated that they will not act until ENMAX reaches and agreement with Alberta Government following their attempt to block PPA holders from returning their agreements to the Balancing Pool.
ENMAX has claimed that the government has had unfair influence on the Balancing Pool.
Alberta PowerLine Closes Deal for $1.4 Billion in Financing for 500 kV Lines from Wabamun to Fort McMurray
The company (made up of 80% by Atco and 20% by Quanta Energy) was selected through a competitive bid process to construct the 400 km lines. This is Canada's largest ever public-private financing partnership.
The lines are currently under construction and are planned to be in service in 2019.
The AESO Files NIDs for Transmission Connections of Two New Wind Farms
The AESO has posted the NID for two new wind connections: the Wheatland Wind Project and the Capital Power Whitla Wind Facility.
The Wheatland Wind Project is proposed to be located close to Dorothy, Alberta (west of Drumheller). The proposed farm will have a capacity of 120 MW.
The Whitla Wind Facility is expected to be located by Maleb, Alberta (south of Brooks) and will have a proposed capacity of 300 MW.
The HVDC Link Performing Adequately Following Initial Complications
Early in the operation of the lines, degradation of the voltage divider modules during shipping which caused flashovers during operation. Following replacement, the units were still showing abnormal readings. The units were finally replaced with units from a new manufacturer and have since been operating adequately.
The majority of outages on the lines were caused by the voltage divider issue. However the lines also had concerns with the thyristor voltage monitoring cards (water leakage) and some smoothing reactors (blacks spots on the units).
Check out this great post by INMR with photos of the major equipment at the HVDC converter stations.
The AESO Is Holding Stakeholder Relations Sessions for CIP Standards
The sessions will be held on October 25th, 2017 and the invitation is open to all interested stakeholders.
Following the cyber attacks in the US, Switzerland and Turkey, the Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) standards are especially relevant. They were originally drafted by North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) and have been adopted by the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) to fit Alberta's needs.
The purpose of the CIP standards is to advance the physical security and cyber-security of the critical electricity infrastructure of North America.
More on how the safety and reliability of the electric system is enforced and monitored in next week's Energy Expo.
Canadian and World News
The American Department of Energy Announces a Possible Large Scale Shake Up to the American Grid--Proposing a Subsidy to Nuclear and Some Coal Generating Stations
The biggest news this week was the Department of Energy's (DOE's) announcement to provide financial subsidies to generating stations that could provide three months' fuel supply on site. Nuclear and some coal generating stations meet these criteria.
This moves runs contrary to the policies of Obama, Europe, Canada and Japan. Countries around the world have seen an increase of coal generating station closures due to lower natural gas prices which make coal fired plants financial nonviable and government policies which have encouraged the construction of new renewable generation.
Base Load
The report completed by the DOE stated that the closure of base load plants puts the country at greater risk of power outages. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) chairman, Neil Chatterjee, stated that baseload plants must be “properly compensated to recognize the value they provide to the system.”
In Alberta, we have had mixed results relying on baseload stations. Unexpected outages of large generating stations have caused large spikes in power prices. This was experienced on July 26th when Keephills 2 tripped unexpectedly.
However baseload generation, at present, is a critical part of ensuring that we have sufficient reserve margin.
Power price spikes could be avoided by a more diverse generation mix including higher renewable penetration. This would ensure that Alberta is not reliant on a small number of large generating stations.
Natural Disaster Response
It has also been pointed out that long outages during natural disasters are typically caused by damage to transmission and distribution infrastructure and not by generating station outages.
During the hurricanes in Florida and the tsunamis in Japan, several jurisdictions experienced the benefits of microgrids where power is supplied locally when connection to the grid is lost.
Conclusions
Despite the directives, lawyers have stated that they expect the bill to be challenged in the court systems. It remains to be seen whether the plan will be enacted.
Offshore Wind Farms Are Changing the Oceans in Unexpected Ways
Kaela Slavik at the Helmholtz Centre for Materials and Coastal Research in Germany has been investigating the impact of offshore wind power on marine ecosystems.
Offshore turbine are much larger than their onland counter parts and can be well over 200 m tall (higher than the Calgary Tower). In order to support these structure huge concrete bases are constructed in the ocean.
These bases become the home to new marine ecosystems made up mostly of blue mussels.
Fishing and bottom trawling is now allowed in these areas which allows these areas to support greater marine diversity, but also makes them more susceptible to invasive species.
The research found that seals have started to migrate towards these offshore turbines.
"The ecosystems that the North Sea support are obviously different from those in other oceans. Just how the platforms will change ecosystems in other parts of the world isn’t clear."
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