Alberta Power News Round Up - October 10th, 2017

Apologies for the delay in this week's round up. Thanksgiving weekend was a busy one for me. Happy belated Canadian thanksgiving to everyone!

I also decided to add a new section on miscellaneous and fun posts on power and electricity. Scroll to the bottom to check it out!

Alberta News

University of Alberta Researches Are Studying Geothermal Potential in the Province

Following 75 million in funding for new energy research, the school is looking at exploring geothermal opportunities in Alberta.

Jonathan Banks a research follow at the university explains how geothermal power works in the article.

Temperatures increase by 30 degrees per kilometer as you go further under the surface of the earth. If wells can be drilled deep enough (3 to 4 km), the water at these depths can be used to power steam turbines.

We're already drilling wells at this depth in Alberta and boiling water is considered a by-product (typically making up 90% of the liquid found underground with the remaining 10% being mostly oil). Oil companies use techniques to bring oil to the surface and leave water underground.

Banks's goal is to do the opposite to bring boiling water to the surface to power turbines.

It remains to be seen if this technology can be developed and whether it will be economical.

The AESO Posts a NID for Transmission Upgrades in Edmonton and Files NID for Upgrade to Fort MacLoed

The AESO has posted a Need Identification Document (NID) for transmission reinforcement in Edmonton. This includes a 72 kV transmission line, a 240/72 kV transformer, one 240 kV circuit breaker, and one 72 kV circuit breaker connecting the existing Strathcona and Dome substations.

This project is unique because it has been applied for through EPCOR's distribution business instead of as a system project initiated by the AESO to improve reliability of the transmission system.

They also filed a NID with the AUC for a transmission upgrade to the Fort MacLeod 15S substation including a new 138/25 kilovolt (kV) transformer and a 138 kV circuit breaker. These projects are initiated by distribution companies to increase delivery capacity to their customers.

Canadian and World News

California Rejects Bid to Upgrade Gas Peaker Plant

California's Public Utilities Commission has unanimously rejected a bid to upgrade the Ellwood gas peaker plant with equipment upgrades and a small battery stating that the reliability needs of the region could be met with renewable resources.

Gas powered plants have the advantage of being able to come online quickly at all times (barring maintenance and unexpected outages) and they are not dependent on the weather as is the case with most renewable energy.

Last month, the state government approved a law mandating that "utilities develop carbon-free alternatives to gas generation for meeting peak demand in their integrated resource plans".

Electric Vehicle News

There is a lot of news in electric vehicles this week. GM announced that they will introduce two new electric vehicles in the next 18 months and that they plan to go all electric by 2023.

GM is one of the largest car manufacturers in the world and have stated that they believe that the future in vehicles is electric.

Dyson, the vacuum maker, has also announced that they will be building an electric car. They have claimed that their battery technology will allow them to beat other vehicle manufacturers' range by 50 to 100 %.

Wind Power's Bad Reputation on Bird Deaths May Be Unwarranted

The Conversation posted a piece referencing and linking to several government and academic studies on bird deaths.

The main take away was that wind turbine account for far fewer fatalities than other power sources.

And by the far, the biggest killers of birds are cats.

Puerto Looking to Solar Following Devastation of Hurricane Maria

Despite, ongoing efforts to restore power, most of Puerto Rico is still without power.

Telsa has already sent batteries to power the island and last week Elon Musk, told the country that he could rebuild their grid using solar power and batteries. This has already been done on smaller islands.

It would be a flagship project for the company and in addition to being a great humanitarian and environmental project, it would be an excellent case study for full renewable integration.

Presently, the residents with access to solar generation are amoung the few with a reliable energy supply on the island.

Prior to the storm, Puerto Rico relied mostly on diesel and oil generators for power.

ABB Purchases GE Energy Solutions Business

Despite, questionable finances, ABB has purchased GE Energy Solutions. ABB's CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer has stated that due to the overlap in portfolios, he is confident that ABB will bring the business back to a strong position.

"GE's Industrial Solutions business makes circuit breakers, switchgear, components for lighting control and power supply equipment."

ABB and Siemens are the largest power equipment companies in the world.

Ontario Ends Its Peak Saver Program

In 2005, the Ontario Government created a demand response program to reduce power during peak demand (by installing remote thermostats).

Critics of the program said that it was only utilized 21 times. However, electric systems are built to accommodate peak demand. And if the program prevented 21 blackouts then it was well used. More information on when the program was utilized is needed to objectively assess its merits.

Regardless, the program has been cancelled by the government.

Fun Stuff

Fortis was dealing with galloping power lines during the storm last week.

A funnel cloud narrowly misses the Imaginea Gas Plant in Jenner, AB.

Photo by Dustin Fournier

Vesta posted a photo showing what their drivers are up against when delivering parts of their giant wind turbines.

Natural Resources Canada posted an interesting graphic showing how power is generated amoung Canada's provinces and territories.

GE posted a piece on a woman's story of her career transition to wind technician--America's fast growing vocation.

Altalink posted some impressive photos of downed power lines after the storm.

Fortis is holding a contest to honour energy efficiency month. Send them a photo of you doing something to conserve energy for a chance to win.

#PuertoRico #Tesla #Dyson #GM #WindPowerandBirds #AvianFatalities #ElonMusk #ABB #GE #OntarioGovernment #PeakSaverProgram #safety #funnelcloud #vesta #windturbinedelivery #careertransition #storms #contest #california #ellwoodgasplant #strathcona #dome #edmontontransmission #geothermalpower #geothermal #epcor