Alberta Power News Round Up - October 26th, 2017
- Samantha Hoffman, P.Eng.
- Oct 26, 2017
- 3 min read
Alberta News
ATCO Plans to Move Its Calgary Headquarters Out of Downtown
ATCO has decided to move its Calgary Headquarters from the Beltline to south west Calgary, close to Mount Royal University.
The move was made to consolidate its workforce to a single location in Calgary.
Does the Crowsnest Pass Have the Best Renewable Potential in the Province?
The majority of the province's wind energy is produced in southern Alberta and Crowsnest Pass commissioned a study to evaluate potential for new renewable projects in the area.
The study states that the south eastern corner of Alberta may have some of the highest potential for solar energy compared to any other part of Canada and significantly higher potential to any location is Europe where several significant solar projects has already been commissioned.
The study also found that the Crowsnest Pass area could accommodate up to 20 MW of generation, which compared to larger scale wind farms in the province, is relatively small. The AESO currently has renewable projects up to 400 MW in its Connection Queue.
However smaller scale renewable projects could still be utilized to offset Crowsnest Pass's energy usage.
Canadian and World News
California's ISO Completes a Study on the Capabilities of a 300 MW Solar Farm to Provide Essential Reliability Services
The study showed how "the development of advanced power controls can enable [photo voltaic] PV to become a provider of a wide range of grid services, including spinning reserves, load following, voltage support, ramping, frequency response, variability smoothing, and frequency regulation to power quality. Specifically, the tests conducted included various forms of active power control such as [automatic governor control] AGC and frequency regulation; droop response; and reactive power, voltage, and power factor controls."
Power electronic inverters were utilized to provide these services. The facility could provide these services even during times of "extremely low power generation" and that for ACG regulation accuracy was 24-30 point better than gas turbines.
It is still unclear from the study how the plant could provide services when solar panels are not producing energy (at night) and whether it would be possible to completely eliminate traditional providers of reliability services.
Duke Energy Believes that the US Grid Will Be Inundated with Batteries in the Next Five Years
Battery prices dropped by 65% between 2012 and 2016 and despite not producing a positive rate of return, consumers continue to purchase batteries. Many do so in order to achieve grid independence.
Spencer Hanes who is the managing director of business development at Duke Energy believes that the missing piece is policy. Batteries have the potential to improve reliability, power quality and defer maintenance but this has yet to be fully utilized by any major utility.
The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority Annouces the Winning Tender for the World's Largest Solar Plant
Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power and China’s Shanghai Electric won the bid at 7.3 cents per kilowatt-hour. This is the lowest price per kilowatt-hour ever for a solar energy plant.
Including the first three stages, the project would have a total capacity of 1,700 MW. The towers in the third phase would measure 260 m tall.
"Dubai aims to increase the share of clean energy to its total power production to 7 percent by 2020, further increasing it to 25 percent by 2030 and 75 percent by 2050."
Fun Stuff
Ever wonder what life is like as a wind technician? Check out this post to find out.
EPRI has releases an interactive demonstration that reveals how clouds, snow, and weather affect #solar energy output.
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