Power plant setting production records
The recently expanded city power plant is setting production records as heat waves drag on in Southern Alberta.
The Unit 17 turbine came online this spring to boost Medicine Hat’s maximum generation output by about 20 per cent. That extra capacity is at work this summer as temperatures push power use and prices higher across Alberta.
“The plant has performed very well,” said Boyd Mostoway, the director of Medicine Hat Power and Water. “(Export market) prices have been very good this whole year, but they’re very high this week.”
The city re-set its all-time record output this summer to 280 megawatts thanks to the addition of the new 44-megawatt turbine at the north-end facility. It moved total capacity to 298 megawatts.
That occurred as peak demand from its customer base remains relatively unchanged from previous years, about 180 megawatts at its highest point of the year when air-conditioning drives up use in the city. The remainder is bid onto the Alberta market.
“For (city demand) this time of year, we’re right on the button,” said Mostoway.
Power prices on the Alberta grid remained in the $800 per megawatt range in the afternoon and evening on Tuesday. That is about 10 times greater than fixed power prices offered to utility customers inside city’s franchise area.
A heat wave that is already a week old is expected to continue and even worsen through the weekend, with a high of 35C predicted for Saturday.
Including Wednesday, 13 out of 17 days in August have seen plus-30C temperatures in Medicine Hat, and 27 days above that mark since July 1.
Mostoway also reported few problems for the generation business, and stable operation of the distribution system following the cleanup from heavy wind damage last month.
During the week of July 18, storms knocked down lines near the north-end complex and nearby industrial complexes, isolating them and leaving them offline for five days.
The effect on power demand and production in the remainder of the city lowered demand that was entirely supplied by the city’s main river valley power plant.