Cogen shuts down while Hydro imports power
By Grant Warkentin
Campbell River Mirror
Jun 16 2006
COMMENT: And just imagine if BC Hydro in its wisdom were paying Duke Point Power not to operate, as well. Wouldn't that be a rich slap in the face to the ratepayers of BC.
Just to be clear. In the year 2000, BC Hydro had gas-fired electricity capacity of 900 MW at Burrard Thermal and 240 MW under construction at Island Co-generation. Hydro also planned for another 240 MW at Port Alberni Generation and 600+ MW at a 2007 plant near Duncan.
By 2005, the Burrard was idled, Island Co-gen was running, Port Alberni Generation was dead, and Duke Point Power had just been killed, along with the GSX Pipeline. Today, all of this gas-fired generation capacity is shut down.
Wow, how wrong could BC Hydro be?
BC Hydro has been paying the cogen plant to not generate electricity for nearly a month.
It's also paying the Elk Falls paper mill, which uses steam from the cogen plant, to burn alternative fuels to power its machines while the cogen plant is offline.
"As a result of this agreement, which is basically a dispatch agreement, all three parties benefit," said Stephen Watson, BC Hydro's public affairs co-ordinator on Vancouver Island.
BC Hydro made a deal about three weeks ago to temporarily shut the plant down because it's cheaper right now to import power generated in the United States.
"The idea was to take advantage of an opportunity in which power prices in the U.S. were extremely low," said Curtis Mahoney, manager of the Calpine Power Income Fund's cogen plant next to the Elk Falls paper mill. "What this allows BC Hydro to do is import cheap power and store their own."
The cogen plant also supplies steam to Catalyst to run its machines. However, BC Hydro made a deal with the mill and the cogen plant earlier this year to temporarily shut the power plant down.
"It's an agreement BC Hydro has with Calpine and Catalyst Paper," said Watson.
That means BC Hydro is financially compensating the mill for its lost steam while the mill uses oil, diesel and hog fuel to generate the power it needs.
Watson said the deal helps BC Hydro manage its "shoulder season," when there's lots of power but little demand.
As the weather warms up, most people in B.C. no longer require electricity to heat their homes and power customers in California haven't yet begun to turn on all their air conditioners.
"The demand for electricity in B.C. is at its least," he said. "We've got lots of water and we've got a surplus of power."
Watson said the electricity generated by the cogen plant isn't needed right now and that it's better for the plant to shut down and stay down rather than try and respond to fluctuating supply and demand.
"Because of our hydroelectric surplus there isn't as much of a need," he said. "For them to start up and shut down isn't very productive."
That's the case for most of northwestern North America, he said. Power - primarily generated by hydroelectric plants - is so cheap it's cost-efficient for BC Hydro to buy cheap electricity from the United States on the open market. Once BC Hydro has taken care of the needs of British Columbians, it can sell off the leftovers.
"If we have any excess then we can sell it," he said.
Watson said the buying and selling of power happens quickly, when supply and demand fluctuates throughout a day.
He said B.C. has an advantage when it comes to selling power because it's easy to adjust the output of hydroelectric dams.
"Hydro facilities can ramp up and ramp down very quickly," he said.
Lots of melting snow this year has kept reservoirs for B.C.'s dams full, meaning BC Hydro can sell excess hydroelectric power and still have plenty of power-generating potential later in the year for B.C. customers.
Meanwhile, the cogen plant has been using the downtime to do maintenance, Mahoney said.
The plant is using the opportunity to tune up parts of the generator that are usually impossible to get at.
The facility is essentially a giant natural gas-fired turbine, similar to a big jet engine.
When the facility is on, it's on constantly and runs as one of BC Hydro's base generation plants on Vancouver Island.
Mahoney said the plant should be up and running again soon.
"We expect probably early next week we'll be requested to go back on," he said.
Posted by Arthur Caldicott on 19 Jun 2006