Chase Energy Canada Limited

“Alberta’s wholesale power prices averaged $77/MWh in 2011, which is below the replacement cost of new greenfield coal and new wind generation. When prices are below replacement cost, consumers benefit,” stated IPPSA’s Executive Director, Evan Bahry. “For context, $77/MWh is just 10% above where wholesale power prices were in 2001. Of note, crude oil traded at $26 barrel a decade ago and now trades at over $100, and Calgary home prices rose 126% over the past decade². Alberta’s wholesale electricity market is demonstrably competitive,” asserts Bahry. Re-regulation would not lower the wholesale cost of power in Alberta, Bahry adds, and therefore would not lower residential prices below what Alberta’s competitive market is offering today.

The federal government is offering the provinces a way to avoid tough new regulations that would eventually force power companies to shut down the country’s fleet of coal-fired power plants. Environment Minister Peter Kent and Prime Minister Stephen Harper have privately indicated they are willing to provide flexibility in how new power-plant emissions rules are implemented, provincial and industry sources said Thursday. Mr. Kent is expected to release the final version of the long-promised regulations in the coming months.

The Alberta Utilities Commission’s Nov. 1, 2011 decision to approve an above-ground option for the Heartland Transmission Project remains under fire, as more appeals have come forward. Responsible Electricity Transmission for Albertans submitted its appeal on Dec. 30. Prior to this, Strathcona County had submitted an application for the suspension of the project, as well as an appeal. In its appeal, RETA presented three points, with the first being the electromagnetic field (EMF) levels that could be experienced by residents, as presented to the AUC by AltaLink. According to RETA, these levels were misrepresented and only display one frequency, ignoring findings from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers that show these EMF figures are underestimated.

A major jump in power rates this month is further evidence the provincial government must return to a regulated electricity market, Alberta NDP Leader Brian Mason says. Mason called Wednesday on the Redford government to immediately freeze prices at a reasonable level, saying the province’s decision in the mid-1990s to deregulate the power market has failed consumers. For customers without a contract, January’s power rate is 15.11 cents per kilowatt hour. That is the highest it has reached in a decade, an increase power companies have blamed on unexpected plant shut-downs and strong demand. While some observers expect prices to drop slightly in February and March, Mason said consumers will continue to be hit with unexpected spikes as long as the province refuses to take control of the market. He said the use of contracts, which guarantees customers a stable rate, is also not the answer because they usually involve a “middleman” who charges a premium. Mason said an NDP government would reintroduce regulation and require companies to justify any rate increase through a public hearing. He said he did not know all the hurdles involved in re-establishing a regulated market, though he acknowledged it would take some time. At any rate, when the government dictates the RRO to buy forward contracts for their supply but does not dictate generators to sell forward it creates a one sided affair in favor of the generator in an illiquid market.

Green Energy Solution Industries (GESI) has secured about 10 acres for the construction of its waste rail tie to energy plant in Canada. The 10-acre location is more than the projected footprint required for a waste railroad tie to the 20MW electricity facility, located at the Duagh plant facility of GESI’s partner On-Track Railway Operations outside of Edmonton Alberta. In the Industrial Heartland of Alberta, there are already over half a million rail ties readily available for use as feedstock by GESI. The site is particularly well suited for the construction and placement of GESI’s electricity generation facility due to nearby grid tie in locations, the ready and ongoing supply of feedstock, existing permitting, rail tracks, highway locations, and industrial ability on the site.

Grasslands School Board has indicated they would be willing to participate in a Wind Power Project that would supply their electricity needs for the next 25 years at a fixed price. Grasslands joined more than 40 school boards across the province to support the project created by Alberta Schools Commodity Purchasing Consortium. Grasslands does not currently belong to the CPC but has signed an intent-to-participate letter to support the advancement of the project. The wind farm will be built in east-central Alberta close to the Saskatchewan border. With a capital cost of $160 million it will have the capacity of approximately 70 megawatts. BluEarth Renewables Inc., a Calgary based company, will be the developer and operator for the venture.

A new generation of workout machines that generate electricity as you work up a sweat are poised to invade fitness centers and help you keep your New Year’s resolution to trim down your waistline. The electricity generated by the machines is fed back into the grid, helping the gym save on its utility bills. The so-called Green System from Woodinville, Wash.,-based SportsArt Fitness, represents a novel way to harness “human power. It joins a growing list of similar concepts, including PaveGen’s pavers that generate electricity as people walk (and boogie) on them and devices such as shoes and a backpack that charge batteries as you go for a jog or hike in the woods. The system is also hooked up with Victoria, Canada,-based EcoFit, which produces digital technology to calculate the number of watts an individual generates during a workout, put it on a graphical display and keep track of watts over time on a card. In the future, the companies hope to turn these “eco-points” generated at the gym into currency accepted at coffee shops and other retail outlets. Olympians and spectators that cross from a stadium to a shopping center during the 2012 summer games in London will step on pavers that convert footsteps into electricity. The installation of the high-tech pavers is the first commercial deal inked by PaveGen, a UK-based company that makes the electricity-generating slabs. The slabs are made of 100 percent recycled rubber on top and 80 percent recycled material at its base. The weight of person is used to generate electricity. How, exactly, is a company secret. The pavers have LED that illuminate when the paver is stepped on. This glow is intended to engage walkers with the fact they are making renewable energy.

Sundance#5 went offline at 12:27 yesterday; HR Milner went offline at 12:53 and came back online at 21:54 yesterday.

British Columbians will have lighter wallets in 2012 as provincial and federal governments hike a host of fees on everything from gasoline and car insurance to electricity, ferry fares, medical services plans and employment insurance. Electricity rates could rise 3.9 per cent in 2012, according to B.C. Hydro. The Crown power company has asked for the rate hike in both 2012 and 2013, after getting conditional approval for an 8.0 per cent increase in 2011. Hydro had asked for a much higher increase, but ended up cutting jobs and finding internal savings after the government turned down the request.

Texas electric grid operators are coming off of a tumultuous year, one they are not eager to repeat. In February, a deep freeze knocked numerous power plants out of commission as equipment broke, causing rolling black outs across the state. Then, the hottest summer on record spurred repeated conservation warnings, as grid managers worked — successfully — to avoid more blackouts. A December report by the Texas grid operator said that power reserve margins — the safety buffer the state uses when there is a shortage — are expected to drop slightly next summer, bringing the likely number of blackouts to 2 in 10 years. Texas is the only state that has its own electric grid, and this relative isolation means less outside help is available in emergencies.

Nearly seven years after announcing a plan to install “smart meters,” Ontario’s environment commissioner says the province still doesn’t know if they are having any effect on electricity consumption and actually saving people money. The government has no mechanism in place to measure how people have changed their consumption with the introduction of TOU (time of use) pricing. The OPA has said it won’t have a system in place to crunch smart meter data until later next year. Smart meters are devices that track the real-time use of electricity, and then are supposed to bill customers if they decide to take advantage of hours with lower rates. But whether smart meters actually benefit consumers isn’t the only issue that Ontarians should be concerned about. As Ontario information privacy commission Ann Cavoukian has pointed out, the devices should be raising privacy concerns

North Dakota’s effort to challenge a Minnesota law barring the importation of coal-based electricity is bound to run up some hefty legal bills. Fortunately for North Dakota, its energy companies have some deep pockets. North Dakota Utilities and coal-power interest groups have agreed to pay up to $500,000 for the lawsuit – no surprise as they are co-defendants in the suit. The suit, which argues that Minnesota is “unconstitutionally interfering with North Dakota’s energy production,” was filed in November. North Dakota will still have to pay costs of more than $500,000, and the total cost of the suit could top $1.2 million.

Construction will begin in February on six new 500-kilovolt transmission lines that carry electricity from Grand Coulee Dam to the Bonneville Power Administration’s grid. Grand Coulee is the largest hydroelectric facility in the U.S. The six new 500-kilovolt overhead transmission lines will replace six aging underground lines. The new lines will transfer power across the Columbia River and over the visitor center area, and then uphill to connect to existing lines.

Sheerness#1 went offline at 20:16 Friday and came back online at 21:02 Saturday; Sundance#4 went offline at 21:29 Sunday and back online at 14:19 Monday; Battle River#3 went offline at 13:28 Tuesday.

A judge hearing disputes Thursday between landowners and the Montana-Alberta Tie Line project is asking for quick action from each side in a case that has long stalled the project. The power line running from the Great Falls area to Canada has been the focus of high-profile legal and legislative battles in Montana. Some landowners are refusing to sell rights of way to the company, leading to bitter eminent domain claims that have slowed construction considerably.

Generating electricity using solar panels is an area where research has been going on for the past two decades. There hasn’t been any modification that was enough to change the way we looked at this in terms of profit or enhanced efficiency. But the discovery of black silicon and the news of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory licensing its patented black silicon technology to New Jersey-based Natcore for the development of a line of products will be giving hope to an improved model of the solar energy conversion technique. According to James Carey, co-founder of Harvard spin-off company SiOnyx, “We have seen a 100 to 500 times increase in sensitivity to light compared to conventional silicon detectors”. The research is only at its infancy as of now, but there is a definite chance for a mind blowing outcome in the near future.

Wind energy in Canada will enjoy a record year in 2011 with about 1,400 MW of new wind energy capacity projected to be added to provincial grids, representing an investment of $3.5 billion and creating 13,500 person-years of employment. Canada is now the ninth largest producer of wind energy in the world and we are poised to become a world leader in wind energy generation. By the end of 2011 we will have more than 5,300 MW of wind energy capacity in place. Canada’s demand for electricity will grow significantly by 2025; at the same time, we will retire 15 per cent of our current generation fleet. This is a clear indication that Canada will need new sources of power to fill the gap, while also reducing impacts to our environment.

A heated debate is underway in B.C. as the province’s hydro utility embarks on a program to modernize the grid using smart meters. BC Hydro is in the process of replacing more than 1.8 million analog meters throughout the province with smart meters, which are capable of providing hourly information about electricity consumption. BC Hydro expects the changeover will be complete by the end of 2012. The utility estimates the meters will save consumers $1.6 billion over the next 20 years by preventing the loss and theft of power. A common concern among smart meter opponents is the wireless radio embedded in each one. Similar to a cell phone, BC Hydro calls the radio several times a day to report on how much power customers are using. BC Hydro, however, says smart meters are active for an average of about one minute per day. Earlier this week, B.C.’s information and privacy commissioner Elizabeth Denham faulted BC Hydro for failing to prove its methods for safeguarding data will prevent unauthorized access, perhaps by someone determined to learn when homes are left empty.

Provincial regulators denied Enbridge Inc. a request to extend permitting deadlines on the Montana-Alberta Tie Line by a year, instead granting the pipe-line and energy giant a regulatory break until May. Power line builder and operator AltaLink was included in Wednesday’s decision on the 230-kilovolt trans-mission line by the Alberta Utilities Commission, having also applied for an extension on its substation project associated with the project. The line was expected to flow 340 megawatts of wind-generated power by mid-2012 from Great Falls, Mont., to a substation just north of Lethbridge, anchored by take-or-pay contracts with U.S. developers. However, in September Enbridge and AltaLink filed separate applications to extend their construction deadlines until Dec. 31, 2012, citing weather and disputes with U.S. land-owners and contractors.

Power Target, LLC, a Baltimore, Maryland firm, dedicated to providing information and resources on electricity choice has launched a nationwide web-based electricity shopping platform to assists U.S. residents in finding competitive options for electricity. The number of U.S. residents with competitive options for electricity continues to grow with unprecedented electricity deregulation among states and the constant emergence of new electricity providers and options. The Power Target platform is designed to make these options simple for consumers in states with electricity competition to learn about their options, and choose the right electricity providers and plans.

Saskatchewan’s Premier is concerned about the country’s equalization formula, saying provinces with hydro benefit more than those without. Wall says that while provinces like Manitoba and Quebec enjoy cheap hydro power, which they can also sell, they also receive big equalization payments from Ottawa. Saskatchewan does not benefit from the equalization formula because it has resources such as oil, which the federal government sees as a source of wealth. At least some of the money generated from hydro power should be deducted from equalization payments that would free up federal money for programs such as health care.

The Bonneville Power Administration should be feeling this after going to great lengths to meet the challenges of connecting the enormous expansion of variable wind power to its electrical system and patiently holding regional discussions to resolve lingering disputes. Then came the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission this month, overthrowing this work by asserting that it has the authority to nix BPA’s approach on what to do with its own system when too much generation threatens stability. The conflict arises when the variability of this large new wind fleet combines with spring runoff in the hydropower system to create more generation than can be used. In an electrical system, supply must be instantaneously balanced with demand or the results can be horrific. To maintain grid stability, BPA’s interim policy sets out a series of measures that include curtailing non-hydro generation, including wind generation as a last resort at limited times when dams in the Columbia River system must generate power rather than spill more water over the dams. Spill is limited by laws to protect fish from harm caused by high gas levels that too much spill creates. In an order that shows little regard for Northwest citizens and includes little explanation of its ruling, FERC elevated wind power above all else, claiming that BPA was unfairly treating wind generators connected to its system. In doing so, FERC ignored all other laws that require Bonneville to protect fish and wildlife, to ensure the reliability of our regional electrical system, and to provide power at low cost to communities across the region.