Global Courant 2023-05-01 17:14:22
Prime Minister Doug Ford’s administration is preparing to expand gas-fired power plants in Ontario, a move that critics say will pollute the province’s electricity system and could ultimately hook taxpayers.
The province is currently request quotes for additional gas-fired electricity generation, meaning either new gas plants are built or existing gas plants are expanded.
It will be Ontario’s largest increase in gas-fired power in more than a decade since the previous Liberal government demolished two gas plants, in Mississauga and Oakvilleat a cost the Auditor General determined to be approximately $1 billion.
Ford Energy Secretary Todd Smith says Ontario now needs gas plants to help meet an expected surge in electricity demand and provide power, while some units of the province’s nuclear power plants down for renovation.
“It’s very important to have natural gas as an insurance policy to be there to keep the lights on and provide the reliability we need,” Smith said in an interview.
“We need natural gas for the short term, especially to get through these renovations.”
Todd Smith is Ontario’s Secretary of Energy. (Vedran Lesic/CBC Radio-Canada)
The portion of Ontario’s electricity supply that comes from natural gas is important not only to the environment, but also to the province’s economy. Manufacturing companies are increasingly looking for a power supply that emits as little carbon dioxide as possible.
More gas-fired power plants could, according to some, discourage investment
Ford has touted the province’s “clean energy advantage” as one of the main reasons why Volkswagen Ontario chose a $7 billion battery plant for electric vehicles.
Increasing the amount of gas-fired generation in the power system jeopardizes Ontario’s ability to attract such investments, said Evan Pivnick, program manager at Clean Energy Canada, a think tank.
“Building new natural gas (electricity) plants in Ontario today should be viewed as an absolute last resort to meet our energy needs,” Pivnick said in an interview.
Ontario’s power system has one of the lowest carbon emissions in North America, with about half of its annual supply coming from nuclear power, a quarter from hydropower dams and a tenth from wind turbines.
However, Ontario’s gas plants have produced a growing amount of electricity in recent years and that trend should continue as new gas plants are built.
The Halton Hills Generating Station is a gas-fired power station owned by Atura Power, a subsidiary of Ontario Power Generation, the Crown Corporation that produces more than half of Ontario’s electricity supply. Atura Power purchased the 583-megawatt facility in 2020 as part of a $2.8 billion deal involving three gas plants. (CBC)
In 2017, gas and oil-fired generation supplied only four percent of Ontario’s electricity supply, according to figures of the provincial agency that manages the grid, the Independent Electricity Network Operator (IESO).
That figure will be reached in 2022 10.4 percent.
Ontario doesn’t need new gas plants to meet electricity demand, said Bryan Purcell, vice president of policy and programs at The Atmospheric Fund, an agency that invests in low-carbon projects in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.
“We are very concerned about where Ontario’s power grid is going,” Purcell said. “Fortunately, there is still some time to adjust course and look at other options.”
According to Purcell and Pivnick, those options for avoiding gas may include energy storage (in which excess energy generated is stored for later use when electricity demand rises), wind and solar energy projects, or energy efficiency and conservation programs.
Ottawa is making it cheaper to build clean energy
Last autumn, the IESO concluded that it would be impossible to meet the electricity needs of the province in the coming years without adding new gas-fired capacity.
In May 2014, this was all that remained of an 800-megawatt gas-fired power plant in Mississauga that was canceled midway through construction by the Liberal government of then-Prime Minister Dalton McGuinty just before the 2011 provincial election. (Chris Young/Canadian Press)
However, that was before the federal government made it cheaper to build new carbon-free electricity generation by announcing $6.3 billion in investment tax credits for new wind, solar, hydro, tidal and nuclear projects.
The Ford government’s drive to generate more of Ontario’s electricity from natural gas may conflict with the Trudeau administration’s commitment to make Canada’s power grid net-zero emissions by 2035.
The FBI is currently developing regulations to enforce its net-zero electricity plan and is one of the ideas suggested is a phase-out of electricity powered by fossil fuels (such as gas plants), which may include closing new plants built after 2025.
However, the companies that would build Ontario’s new gas-fired power plants needn’t worry: Even if the FBI were to shut them down, the Ford government promises they’ll continue to get paid.
Purcell claims this is a recipe for another gasworks scandal, similar to what the province saw in the 2010s under Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government.
“There is a very real risk that not only will we get these new gas plants, but we will continue to pay for them long after they have to close,” Purcell said.
Ontario’s electricity supply is currently about 90 percent carbon-free. While the federal government wants electricity systems across Canada to be carbon neutral by 2035, the agency that manages Ontario’s power grid says it does not foresee a phase-out of gas-fired generation until 2050. (Mike Crawley/CBC)
Asked if he could promise that Ontario will not experience another gas plant scandal, Smith replied, “What I am going to guarantee to the people of Ontario is that we will have the power they need.”
Ontario faces major increase in energy demand
Dave Butters, president and chief executive of the Association of Power Producers of Ontario, opposes the idea that gas plants in the province are inseparable from political scandal and defends gas-fired power generation.
“It’s safe, it’s relatively clean, it’s efficient, it’s effective,” Butters said in an interview. “It can respond to the ups and downs of electricity demand in real time.”
Butters says the province needs “a sense of urgency” to close the gap between Ontario’s capacity to generate electricity and demand for power.
“We are on the verge of a very large increase in our electricity system in Ontario,” he said. “We now have to continue with these tenders. We cannot wait until 2024, otherwise we will run out of time.”
The province’s current call for new sources of electricity allows for up to 1,500 megawatts from natural gas installations. To put that in context, that’s the same capacity as Ontario’s largest hydroelectric dam, the Sir Adam Beck II Generating Station near Niagara Falls.
Located about 30 kilometers south of Sarnia, the Greenfield Energy Center is one of the largest gas-fired power plants in Ontario, with a capacity to generate 1,000 megawatts of electricity. (Ausenco)
Where new facilities will be built remains to be seen
Once the new facilities are operational — expected in 2027 — Ontario could impose a moratorium on building new gas-fired power stations, the IESO reported last fall. But the agency says the province cannot completely phase out the use of natural gas in the electricity system until 2050.
Where the new gas-fired generation will go and who will build it remains an open question.
Smith says IESO has indicated it is likely that much of the new gas-fired power supply will be built on the sites currently occupied by gas plants, possibly by expanding existing facilities.
Four of the province’s largest gas plants are owned and operated Atura powera wholly owned subsidiary of Crown Corporation Ontario Power Generation (OPG).
In 2020, OPG spent $2.8 billion to purchase two and a half gas plants: the 900-megawatt Napanee Generating Station, the 683-megawatt Halton Hills Generating Station, and the remaining 50 percent ownership interest in the Portlands Energy Center, a 550-megawatt gas plant megawatts. factory in Toronto.
The largest privately owned and operated gas plants in Ontario comprise the 1,038 megawatts Greenfield Energy Center in Court, Capital power 875 megawatt Goreway Power Station in Brampton, and TransAltaSarnia’s 499-megawatt regional cogeneration plant.
