Alberta wind power cap under fire
RICHARD BLACKWELL
July 31, 2007
Wind power advocates are unhappy with the Alberta government for suggesting that the current cap on wind energy in the province might be raised, rather than eliminated completely.
Last year the province's energy operator set a "threshold" of 900 megawatts for wind power production, because of concerns that amounts above that level could destabilize the power grid. As wind is intermittent and requires backup, anything above that level could be a problem, the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) said.
About 500 MW of wind power is generated in the province already, and many more projects in the planning stages would push past the 900 MW mark.
The wind industry was unhappy with the cap, saying that it is unnecessarily stalling wind development in the province, and wind players have been lobbying for its removal.
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But Alberta Energy Minister Mel Knight reignited debate on the issue when he told The Calgary Herald in a recent interview that the cap might be shifted to around 1,500 MW on an interim basis.
Mr. Knight was not available yesterday, but his assistant Jason Chance said the Minister was "just speculating about where we might be going in the future."
While the government's goal is to see the cap much higher than where it is now, "we need to work with the AESO to ensure that it's done in a responsible manner," he said.
Opposition politicians and the wind industry have criticized Mr. Knight for suggesting that any cap is necessary.
NDP Leader Brian Mason called the cap "unjustified" and said removing it entirely would "unleash Alberta's green economy".
Jason Edworthy, managing director of market development for TransAlta Corp.'s wind power operations, said putting in place another cap on wind power, at a higher level, is really "the easy way out."
A better solution, Mr. Edworthy said, is to come up with a plan that would allow greater amounts of wind power to be integrated into the power grid without destabilizing the system. If wind power grows too quickly, there could be a system of "dashboard warning lights" at certain levels that would require adjustment of the plan, rather than hard caps that hamper the industry, he said.
Already the wind industry has been working with the AESO to create a plan that includes much more accurate forecasting of wind, geographic diversification of wind farms, better transmission lines, and controls on wind turbines to avoid power surges when the wind blows too hard.
Warren Frost, vice-president for operations and reliability at the AESO, said the plan to integrate more wind into the province's grid is well under way. As a result, the AESO's target is to eliminate the 900 MW threshold by year end, without having to set a higher interim level, he said.
A key component is wind forecasting, and AESO is working with the industry to develop new techniques to make it much more accurate.
In the longer term, the province will have to improve its transmission lines, and create better interconnections with other states and provinces to allow more cross-border trading of power.
While Alberta has been the focus of much national attention in the wind industry because of its cap on wind power, other provinces have also limited growth, but in more subtle ways, Mr. Frost said.
Most other provinces control wind development through the tendering of power projects. They issue "requests for proposals" only when their grids are in a position to absorb the power that will be generated by the turbines.
Alberta, which has an open market system that buys whatever power is generated by private developers, can't use that mechanism, he said.
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