SASKPOWER TO BUY POWER FROM MANITOBA HYDRO.
Deal boosts SaskPower’s green ambitions
A 20-year deal to buy electricity from Manitoba Hydro will help reduce SaskPower’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, increase the renewable portion of the corporation’s power portfolio and cost roughly the same as natural gas-fired generation, according to a senior SaskPower official.
On Monday, Manitoba Hydro, the province’s Crownowned energy utility, announced the deal to sell 100 megawatts of hydroelectric power — enough to electrify 40,000 homes — to SaskPower from 2020 to 2040. The deal is part of a memorandum of understanding signed in 2011 involving the sale of up to 500 megawatts to SaskPower. In 2014, SaskPower reached an agreement with Manitoba Hydro to import 25 MW of power from 2015 to 2022.
Interim Manitoba Hydro president Darren Rainkie says proceeds from the sale are included in the corporation’s projected revenues, and will not affect plans to boost hydro rates by 3.9 per cent a year.
The deal will require 18 per cent of the energy generated from the still-underconstruction Keeyask station on the lower Nelson River in northern Manitoba. The Keeyask project will have 695 MW of capacity and produce 4,400 gigawatt hours of electricity per year.
The sale will also require a new 80-kilometre, 230,000-volt transmission line to be built between Birtle, Man., and Tantallon, Sask., which will cost roughly $50 million. Rainkie won’t reveal the price SaskPower is going to pay for the power, but says it is attractive and protected against inflation.
“The energy we will supply to SaskPower is clean, renewable hydroelectricity that is surplus to the needs of Manitobans. The revenues from the sale will assist in offsetting the costs of Keeyask and keep rates low for our customers in Manitoba,” Rainkie said.
Guy Bruce, SaskPower’s vice-president of environment and sustainable development, added the price compares favourably with combined-cycle natural gas generation, on a per kilowatt hour basis. “The price is very competitive with what we would have had to pay if we were, say, building our own gas-fired plant.”
He said the 25 MW acquired from Manitoba Hydro in 2014 is primarily to meet growing demand in Northern Saskatchewan, while the 100 MW is targeted for the southern half of the province. “The reliability would be good and available in the peak periods when we need it,” Bruce said. “It also has the additional benefit of no emissions.”
Bruce said SaskPower has installed and purchased-power capacity of 4,300 MW, so the addition of 100 MW will not dramatically increase the province’s total capacity. But he said the addition of hydroelectric power adds to the corporation’s renewable energy sources and reduces our dependence on fossil fuel generation.
“This is a further diversification of our mix and it’s a source of power that’s clean, renewable and non-(GHG)emitting,” Bruce said, adding the purchase will increase SaskPower’s generation capacity from renewables by two per cent to 27 per cent.
But Bruce cautioned that SaskPower will still need to build more generating capacity, including fossil-fuel-fired generation. “There’s more gas-fired generation coming on. We’re continuing to study all the options.”