As P.E.I. becomes leader in switching to electricity, utility looks to keep up

Maritime Electric is looking to spend about $427 million on new equipment to generate more power.

The utility's CEO, Jason Roberts, said P.E.I. is leading the country when it comes to electrification — from driving electric cars, to installing solar panels and heat pumps in homes, but all of that, plus a growing population, is putting a strain on the Island's power supply.

"This is this is really a vital, vital project for us," he said.

"It's about two things. One is security of supply for our customers and serving our customers. The second part is being able to support the integration of more renewable energy here on Prince Edward Island. So it would help support further development of renewables here, wind and solar."

Maritime Electric wants to buy a combustion turbine, a battery for energy storage systems and internal combustion engines.

The utility pulls power from other provinces, such as New Brunswick, which Roberts said can cause issues.

Last year the grid reached a new peak load of 359 megawatts.

The utility said buying this equipment should be cheaper in the long run than continuing to buy power off Island.

"You also have questions around the reliability of the transmission system in New Brunswick. We actually experienced that earlier this year. There's three transmission lines that feed us, two of them out of service and we lost three of our four cables. We were able to still respond here on the Island with the renewables that were here and our generation but that's a risk for us."

The utility has submitted an application to the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission to make the purchase.

That means the cost will be passed on to customers eventually, but Roberts said it's too early to tell what it would mean on monthly bills.

Roberts said the effects could be dire if the upgrades don't happen, especially if there is another cold snap like in 2023 and the wind farms are too cold to operate.

"We were really really tight in terms of supply," he said.

While the province hopes to eventually reach a net zero carbon output, the grid is being challenged by many people swapping from oil to electric heat pumps.