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Showing content with the highest reputation on 10/08/2019 in all areas

  1. Fishteck, good note. There is no suggestion that the total amount of "hydro power generation", i.e., MWh of electricity generated, will increase upon PPA expiry. Rather, once the PPA's expire and the units are more fully under TransAlta's operational/commercial control, it is expected that volatility in flows will increase - i.e., more jacking around with the operation of these units in response to the hourly power pool price,which means more short-term volatility in flows (i.e., daily, or over several days). Your point about the available water supply is correct, in terms of capping total electricity generated. But there's plenty of room for TransAlta to screw with flows to control when that electricity is generated (and just as importantly, when it is not). On the comment about conversion to "run-of-river" for some or all of these hydro units, I don't buy that in the least. There is no technical reason why the dams could not be operated simply for flood protection and downstream water management reasons only - and as a result of this operating regime, whatever water is flowed through each dam on any day (with those operating parameters) generates power, to whatever amount and whenever that may be. The Oldman dam operates in that matter - AEP controls the flows for water management reasons, and Atco simply generate whatever power they can from those flows as they are available. No reason why the Bow/Kananaskis hydro units couldn't be operated in exactly the same way.
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