Affordable ideas to help Alberta's electrical system


By Nick Clark

It's easy to shift your current reliance on fossil fuels.

The story of Alberta within the context of Climate Change is complicated and intriguing to watch as market and political dynamics unfold. Do our politicians fully understand the forces at work?

We all have roles to play. Business leaders can choose to sit on the sidelines and watch the story reveal itself or commit to investment in new technologies and services. Home owners and small business people also can decide to get involved by greening some of the energy they consume each month.

At Green Alberta Energy, we decided in favour of investment. This mean we’ve linked the purchase of Green Offsets with the retail price of electricity. Today there are 24 independent electricity retailers in Alberta under our umbrella marketing Green Offsets. The good news is that the cost of electricity is at record setting lows; there is no better time to go green.

By the way, going green need not be expensive. We have created an affordable “Made-in-Alberta Solution” for the home owner.

We believe our approach is sensible. This method also seems in stark contrast to Alberta’s grand energy strategies. Can tax payers actually afford the proposed plan? By pushing the pendulum too far and too fast to the extreme right, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley’s government design for Climate Change will face some difficult financial hurdles to jump over.

Here’s a quote from the Pacific Institute for Climate Change. “Alberta may need to raise extra funds from somewhere other than its planned carbon tax, if it is to cover the cost of renewable energy subsidies, if it wants to phase out coal-fired electricity generation by 2030, and if it wants to increase renewable generation to 30 percent over the same period.”

Who's running our coal plants?

Here’s two problems that face Alberta:
  1. The market price being paid to generators in our province is currently below $20/MWh. At these rates, the market is depressed and not attractive enough to excite new investors to move into Alberta.
  2. How much is Alberta willing to subsidize new generators to bridge the gap and entice new energy producers to invest into Alberta’s pool of generation?
Many of the details have yet to be decided but we do know about the size of the government’s stick. It’s based on the introduction of a carbon tax of $30 per tonne to make dirty energy more expensive and some form of renewable energy subsidy or certificate (REC) to make clean energy cheaper to produce.

However, the government now faces another problem: Enmax, AltaGas, TransCanada and Capital Power, in effect, turned back their coal plants to the province to run.

Now the question arises:
  • Where will the government get the money to pay the carbon tax given that the Balancing Pool (a government corporation) possibly will have to pay for a number of coal generation plants?
  • Possible answer: Just send the bill to the consumer as a Balancing Fee adjustment.
The legal arguments expected to follow will be fascinating to watch, as our Premier really doesn’t want to assume ownership of the Power Purchase Agreements associated with these coal production facilities.

Innovative ideas for our electrical system

The Pacific Institute’s group of engineers and energy policy experts explore the future of Canada’s electrical systems. They suggest that, even with paying wind or solar generators a REC in order to build in Alberta, these sources of supply are intermittent.

Here’s some innovative ideas:
  • Develop energy storage;
  • Build a new fleet of gas-turbine generators to balance out and guarantee generation.
The question our government needs to address: Will gas-fired electricity also need a subsidy to provide incentives for a build-out, particularly for highly flexible but also more expensive gas-fired plants that only operate a few hours a day to service peak demand? Is there enough money in the carbon tax pot of money to fund new gas turbines, as well?

While the government, industry and political parties debate these issues, we are focused on a workable action plan that can be implemented today and will help make a difference by greening the grid.

Let’s look at a family of 4 consuming, say, 700 kWh per month. If they were to green 30% of the energy they consumed, it would cost them only 12 cents per day.

Every bit helps. This solution is affordable and, most important, it is available to consumers today. We do not have to wait till 2030.

Here is a challenge open to all our MLAs: Green the energy you consume at home and do it today. For a list of retailers who are selling green offsets please visit www.GreenAlbertaEnergy.ca
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