Staying focused

The co-chairman of the Northwest Energy Task Force says last week’s announcement about the conversion of the Thunder Bay Power Generating Station has done nothing to shift their focus.

The plant still needs full conversion to natural gas, Iain Angus said Monday, addressing the city’s intergovernmental liaison committee.

To help their cause the Energy Task Force has produced a 16-minute video they plan to present at Queen’s Pak later this month, detailing the region’s present and future energy needs, the dangers of drought under the current set-up and the importance of the generating system as a reliable source of power for the entire region.

For now it produces energy only when the system requires it.

The five-year stop-gap to biomass, which will be reviewed down the road, should breach the gap while the plant is converted to natural gas, a two-year process, but not one the group feels is economically sustainable in the long run.

“It’s a very important announcement,” Angus said. “The fact we now know we have five years life in the plant with some energy buys us time. Otherwise we’d be working to convince the government to undo something they’ve done.”

The plant, which at present burns coal, must be off the fossil fuel by Dec. 31, 2014. The province halted conversion of the plant a year ago, balking at the $400-million cost.

According to figures supplied by the task force, the Ontario Power Authority is projecting an energy capacity of 1,400 megawatts.

But if drought or electrical storms hit, the region could face shortages as high as 460 megawatts, which could mean rolling brownouts that affect mills, mines and people’s homes.

This figure is also about 200 megawatts shy of the load requirement predicted by the task force itself, factoring in a number of mines scheduled or projected to come online by decade’s end.

Mayor Keith Hobbs, who on Friday said he was three-quarters happy with the provincial announcement, downgraded his glee to 50 per cent on Monday.

“What guarantees do we have for a full wood-pellet supply?” he asked. “I have a concern.”

The province will contract 15,000 tonnes of pellets annually, but the specialized fuel, more durable than what will be used at the Atikokan Power Generating Station when its conversion is complete, is only available from two suppliers – one in Texas, the other in Norway.

Should a cold snap hit and the TBGS is needed for an extended period of time, there could be trouble said task force co-chairman Larry Hebert.

“It’s too late to phone Norway and say we need more pellets,” Hebert said.

As a fuel source, pellets double the cost of producing energy, from 10 cents a kilowatt hour for natural gas to 20 cents a kilowatt hour.

The plant would require 100,000 tonnes of pellets to run at 60 per cent capacity for a year to produce 33 megawatts of power. The number quadruples to produce 150 megawatts.