The Gas City must still rely on it

By COLLIN GALLANT on July 25, 2020.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

The Gas City will add another gas-fired power plant in 2022, but with billions being spent on wind and solar projects in the region, some city councillors questioned how renewable energy production is being considered.

On Monday, council approved a plan to twin the three-year-old north-end power plant, known as Unit 16, with a second generator at a cost of $66 million to assure local supply during peak demand periods.

It passed unanimously, though Coun. Jamie McIntosh asked administrators to explain how rapidly advancing solar and wind technology is being considered by the publicly owned utility.

“I was totally in support of building Unit 16, and without question support the purchase of Unit 17,” said McIntosh, a member of council’s utilities committee.

He told council that anyone can see massive solar farms being built in the region and be curious about the direction of the utility sector.

“It’s a discussion that we have every time we’ve discussed this (generation), and how fast the transition is taking place,” said McIntosh. “At some point they will figure out how to store that energy for the benefit of everyone in the province, but until that point we need a backstop.”

“Right now, that’s natural gas, without question.”

The new power plant will add 44 megawatts of power to the city’s capacity, bringing it to 299 megawatts, at completion in early 2022.

This month the News revealed that a developer plans to build a 300-megawatt facility in city limits for export to the grid. Work on seven smaller facilities is underway in southeast Alberta right now.

As well, within a 45-minute drive of the Hat, four wind farms, each with 200 megawatts or more of capacity, will be operating by late 2022.

City utility officials say the evolution of power production to greener sources is underway, but the current project will be “paid out” well before solar and wind take over the Alberta power landscape.

“We’re very supportive of a renewable future,” said utilities commissioner Brad Maynes, who said Unit 17 is “best in class” for gas. “Our assumption and belief is that transition – which won’t be overnight, it will be extensive transition period – will require backup power (supply). That’s natural gas, and we’re ideally suited.”

The previous provincial government has set a goal of having 30 per cent of power generated from renewable sources by 2030 to correspond with the phase-out date for coal plants.

Solar and wind power have by far the lowest input and operating costs, but produces power intermittently. Some observers argue that capital costs of renewables are extraneous if they can only operate in tandem with existing generation fuelled by gas or coal to stabilize supply.

Current construction estimates for solar fields are dropping though, and currently sit near $1.5 million per megawatt of capacity. That means to bring on 44 megawatts, like Unit 17, would roughly cost about the same at $66 million. But without viable or economic storage, the city would have less ability to manage the load without costly imports. However, Unit 17 is officially meant to only cover peak demand periods, which for Medicine Hat are on hot summer days, when solar produces best.

The chair of the city’s utility committee, Coun. Phil Turnbull, said the organization is familiar with operating gas-fired plants, and needs to have “on demand” power to meet local need.

“Until that day, there’s nothing like 24-7 gas,” he told council.

He also implied the city should move now on the expansion, considering approvals expire in June 2021 if construction isn’t underway, and the federal government has imposed new requirements on gas plants that could increase over time.

Turnbull said that technology does present risks for traditional utilities that don’t evolve, but evolution must be highly focused.

“At some point we’re going to see that steam turbines (fired by natural gas) just aren’t economical,” he said.

Utility officials also said that Unit 17 could help smooth refurbishment plans at the city’s main power plant, which is a combined-cycle operation.

Scheduled overhauls of two smaller units there are set for 2028 (units 10 and 11 each produce 25 megawatts). It’s possible the 44-megawatt Unit 17 turbine could negate the need for new spending there, or more modern, more efficient, equipment could be chosen.

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