Can the Ion Use Renewable Energy?

Regional Staff have responded to my request to look into using Renewable Energy to power the Ion. Here is the memo. With I will say, a lot of research by staff

The Memo sent to Regional Councillors is below:

Region staff have looked at a few possible options to provide renewable power for the ION system.

The chart below shows the mix of electric power sources in Ontario.   Approximately 33% of the normal power in the grid comes from renewable sources.  The majority of the power (63%) comes from nuclear energy with the  remainder (4%) from gas/oil.

2017 Transmission-Connected Generator Output

link http://www.ieso.ca/corporate-ieso/media/year-end-data

Possible ways to use all or more renewable energy for the ION include:

1. Region or other party creates specific source of power (solar and/or wind)
2. Region uses the power from Region’s existing solar power installations
3. Region purchases green power from a supplier of green power

Each of the options is reviewed briefly with some discussions of pros and cons:

Option 1. Region or other party creates specific source of power (solar and/or wind)

• Region is completely in control
• Wind power has not been shown to economical in Waterloo Region.  Wind farm would have to be somewhere else
• Both wind and solar would require supplemental power sources and can only partially offset power from the grid
• Cost for this option are relatively high both capital and ongoing operations and maintenance (staff have not attempted to quantify the cost)
• Would require significant land for the solar/wind farms
• Region would be committed to this power source in the long term even if better alternatives became available
• Could be used to partially offset grid power

Option 2

• Region currently has a contract for this power that pays significantly higher than current cost of electricity.  If the contract were broken this revenue would be lost.
• Once the contract is over this option could be re-evaluated to determine if power generation continues from these facilities and whether that power should be used to power the ION.

Option 3.

• Provides flexibility for Region to purchase more or less green power
• Region can change to other source including implantation of own power sources at any time
• Region is not responsible for capital, operations or maintenance
• Allows easy transition to another option should that be desired in the future.

Based on the above Region staff believe that the best option at this time is Option 3.

Region staff approached a supplier of green power (who wished to remain unnamed) to determine what the cost might be to implement Option 3.  This is not a firm estimate as that would still need to be determined once the exact power requirements are known.

The quote below gives 100%, 50% and 25% percentage of green electricity supply for the total electricity  consumption predicted for LRT.

The cost of electricity for the LRT would be increase by $300K, $150K and $75K annually, depending on the supply percentages of total consumption, on the top of the predicted annual budget ($1.5M).  Please note these costs are for electricity supply only and do not include deliver and other costs that are on every electricity bill.

Green House Gas Reductions:

It is important to note that with the current mix sources of electricity (nuclear, hydro, gas/oil etc), as noted above, that electricity from the grid already has low greenhouse gas emissions as a result of the low percentage of electricity from gas/oil.  This gives an emission factor of 0.043 tonnes of ghg per MWh used, of if multiplied by 12,000MWh, equals to around 520 tonnes per year. Or  $576/tonne of ghg reduced ($300K / 520 tonnes).  Greenhouse gas reductions from switching to renewable energy for the ION would be relatively low and costly.

At this stage it is recommended that ION be powered using grid power.  Alternatives to this can be periodically evaluated to see if they are worth pursuing.