Converting the city’s coal-fired generating station to biomass is the cheapest option in order to meet some of the Northwest’s power needs.
That was the main finding of a recent report by the Thunder Bay Energy Task Force. The report, made public on Wednesday, shows that it would cost about $95 million to convert the city’s coal-fired plant to biomass.
Ontario stopped the conversion in November claiming it would save hundreds of millions of dollars in the process.
Task force co-chair Iain Angus said it would cost more than $400 million to build a new generation station with the same capacity of 306 megawatts.
Even if the plant starts the conversion now, there still will be a gap in the power needs in the region.
Angus said they’re working on trying to alleviate that issue.
“One of the things that Ontario Power Generation researching at the request of the minister of energy is the use of torrefied wood pellets,” he said.
“They’re continuing to do that research to see if the facility can be modified quickly and cheaply to handle torrefied pellets. They’re also researching to see if they can get sufficient supply to meet the requirements of the area. That’s one option to carry us forward.”
Angus said they haven’t received a report on the idea yet but the plant is expected to do a test burn sometime in the fall.
The Ontario Power Authority has is in favour of expanding of the East- West line in order to meet power needs. Angus argues that the line and even converting the generation station won’t be enough to meet all of the power needs in the North.
The task force plans to packages all the reports including the load and supply numbers as well as the cost and submit it to Ontario Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli.
“We’re going to submit it to the minister and say ‘we’re did our work, you need to listen to us we’re the voice of the Northwest, we understand the region and you need to ignore the OPA in terms of their assessment because they’re looking at it from a different perspective’,” he said. “We think the minister will listen.”
Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. announced Wednesday that it suspended its environmental assessment activities in the Ring of Fire. Angus said that the announcement didn’t impact their projections as they anticipated delays of some mining projects.
Angus suspected that the company would find a solution to their problem within a couple of months.
Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. At-Large Coun. Larry Hebert pointed out that the generation station is already constructed whereas the East-West tie expansion still has to be built. He said they’re not confident that 2018 will be the end service date so the region needs a ready power supplier.
He expected that the quickest the conversion could be completed would be in 2015.
Mayor Keith Hobbs spoke with Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne on the North’s energy needs earlier this week. He said the premier has to be more involved in this issue because OPA is giving a different story.
“Our numbers are right, OPA’s is wrong,” Hobbs said. “When I said (OPA) was suggesting that we get our energy from Minnesota who burns coal she almost lost it. She said that wasn’t going to happen. We need this generation station open and converted. I think we have to start hammering at our local politicians as well. They seem to be silent on this issue.”
Hobbs added that Wynne assured him that by the end of the summer an announcement would be made.
