Manitoba Hydro proposes $1.4B fuel-burning generating station to stave off winter power shortages
CBC
Manitoba Hydro is proposing to spend $1.36 billion on a new fuel-burning station capable of generating 500 megawatts of electricity on demand, in order to stave off a power shortage expected as soon as five winters from now.
On Tuesday, the provincial Crown corporation asked the Public Utilities Board to review a preliminary estimate for a new "dispatchable capacity resource" made up of two 250-megawatt fuel-combustion turbines.
While no decision has been made on the fuel source for the turbines, the least expensive available option would be natural gas — a fuel the province's NDP government has promised to phase out as an electricity source by 2035.
Adrien Sala, the minister responsible for Manitoba Hydro, said the Crown corporation is also looking at the use of hydrogen and renewable natural gas in the new facility.
Manitoba Hydro has a generating capacity of 6,120 megawatts when all of its generating stations are functioning and water levels are topped up on Lake Winnipeg, its main reservoir.
In a six-page cost estimate for the proposed new generating station, Hydro warns the province needs to be able to generate more electricity on demand to prevent "sustained winter peak capacity deficits" that could arise as early as 2029-2030.
Hydro said it has to start planning right now for this station to "ensure construction and procurement timelines can be achieved and have supply in place" in time for the end of 2029.
The $1.36-billion estimate is based on the lowest-cost known facility, which would be a pair of combustion turbines.
"Manitoba Hydro is studying a variety of fuels," the estimate states. "No decision on the fuel source has been made."
Peter Chura, a spokesperson for Hydro, said the Crown corporation is just starting to consider what fuel would be used in the proposed plant.
"We want to have on the one hand the lowest-cost resource available, and yet we have not ruled out some of the latest technologies," Chura said. "Whatever is the best option at the most affordable price."
While natural gas is widely available, Premier Wab Kinew has asked Sala to phase out the on-demand use of Manitoba's sole existing natural gas-fired plant, the 280-watt Brandon Generating Station, by 2035.
The other fuel options for the new plant — hydrogen and renewable natural gas, which is derived from biological gases emitted from the likes of compost, landfills, sewage treatment or even livestock farms — would require additional expenditures.
For example, a new facility would have to be built in Manitoba to purify biogas to the point where it can be burned as fuel, while hydrogen is expensive to store because steel tanks require layers of coating to prevent them from absorbing the fuel, becoming brittle and fracturing.
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