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Islanders use a lot of electricity at Christmas time – 225 megawatts of electricity to be exact. But by next December, 204 of those megawatts will be supplied by wind.
This spring, the P.E.I. Energy Corporation is building a new wind farm in the Hermanville and Clear Springs area of Kings County. It will be the second wind farm for the eastern end of the Island. It will consist of 10 wind turbines, each producing three megawatts of electricity.
“That will bring us to over 204 megawatts of wind installed on P.E.I.,” said Wayne MacQuarrie, chief executive officer of the PEI Energy Corporation. “At the end of the day, 30 per cent of our electricity will be coming from wind.”
At its peak, in December, electricity usage is 225 megawatts, MacQuarrie said.
“So, as you can appreciate, there are lots of days during the year that the peak falls below 204.”
This spring, the P.E.I. Energy Corporation is building a new wind farm in the Hermanville and Clear Springs area of Kings County. It will be the second wind farm for the eastern end of the Island. It will consist of 10 wind turbines, each producing three megawatts of electricity.
“That will bring us to over 204 megawatts of wind installed on P.E.I.,” said Wayne MacQuarrie, chief executive officer of the PEI Energy Corporation. “At the end of the day, 30 per cent of our electricity will be coming from wind.”
At its peak, in December, electricity usage is 225 megawatts, MacQuarrie said.
“So, as you can appreciate, there are lots of days during the year that the peak falls below 204.”
At night, Islanders use about 100 megawatts of electricity. So on a night when the wind blows and the wind farms produce their maximum capacity, 100 per cent of P.E.I.’s energy needs are being supplied by wind power, said MacQuarrie.
Any excess energy can be exported.
“You don’t dump this stuff. It finds a home,” MacQuarrie said. “It goes down the wire, across the cable,” he said, referring to the transmission cable linking P.E.I. to the Point Lepreau nuclear power facility in New Brunswick.
P.E.I. and N.B. have agreements in place that see the island importing electricity from NB Power when needed, and Maritime Electric exporting to N.B. when the island’s electricity needs are being met by its own power supplies, such as the wind farms.
“The cable goes both ways,” said Ron Estabrooks, an energy advisor with the P.E.I. Energy Corporation.
So when the new wind farm is installed and P.E.I. is generating up to 204 megawatts of electricity, over 100 megawatts can be exported or exchanged with N.B.
“We’re swapping,” said MacQuarrie. “We’re not taking the stuff that’s contracted from New Brunswick because we’re producing more than what we need.”
Any excess energy can be exported.
“You don’t dump this stuff. It finds a home,” MacQuarrie said. “It goes down the wire, across the cable,” he said, referring to the transmission cable linking P.E.I. to the Point Lepreau nuclear power facility in New Brunswick.
P.E.I. and N.B. have agreements in place that see the island importing electricity from NB Power when needed, and Maritime Electric exporting to N.B. when the island’s electricity needs are being met by its own power supplies, such as the wind farms.
“The cable goes both ways,” said Ron Estabrooks, an energy advisor with the P.E.I. Energy Corporation.
So when the new wind farm is installed and P.E.I. is generating up to 204 megawatts of electricity, over 100 megawatts can be exported or exchanged with N.B.
“We’re swapping,” said MacQuarrie. “We’re not taking the stuff that’s contracted from New Brunswick because we’re producing more than what we need.”
The energy P.E.I. exports doesn’t come from all of the wind farms across P.E.I.
The energy for export is supplied by the 99 megawatt West Cape wind farm on the western end of the Island.
It was built for export markets, MacQuarrie said.
Ninety megawatts is exported to the mainland and nine megawatts is used by the Summerside – along with the city’s own 12 megawatt wind farm.
That 99 megawatts isn’t included in the 204 megawatts to be produced when the Hermanville wind farm is built. Nor is it included in the 30 per cent overall demand to be met when the new wind farm is up and running.
“If you look at the actual amount of electricity that’s used on P.E.I.…right now we’re meeting almost 50 per cent of that with wind,” Estabrooks said. That excludes what is exported.
“It’s one of the highest penetration rates in the world,” said MacQuarrie.
First appeared on The Surveyor Online - January 24, 2013
The energy for export is supplied by the 99 megawatt West Cape wind farm on the western end of the Island.
It was built for export markets, MacQuarrie said.
Ninety megawatts is exported to the mainland and nine megawatts is used by the Summerside – along with the city’s own 12 megawatt wind farm.
That 99 megawatts isn’t included in the 204 megawatts to be produced when the Hermanville wind farm is built. Nor is it included in the 30 per cent overall demand to be met when the new wind farm is up and running.
“If you look at the actual amount of electricity that’s used on P.E.I.…right now we’re meeting almost 50 per cent of that with wind,” Estabrooks said. That excludes what is exported.
“It’s one of the highest penetration rates in the world,” said MacQuarrie.
First appeared on The Surveyor Online - January 24, 2013
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