Gas from coal makes North American debut

Enmax, a City of Calgary-owned power utility, plans a large new gas-fired power station in southern Alberta that will be the first in North America to use gas from coal.

The 1,200 megawatt facility, estimated by industry sources to cost C$2 billion, will produce enough power to meet two-thirds of the demand in Calgary, with a population of just over 1 million.

In the process Enmax is taking a break from Alberta’s ambitious push into wind power, which has reached the point where it is vulnerable to supply disruption.

The utility says the more Alberta relies on wind the more it risks loss of power when the wind dies.

Currently, more than 4 percent of southern Alberta’s power comes from wind farms.

But the Alberta Electric System Operator, which controls the provincial electricity grid, imposed a ban a year ago on construction of new wind project until reliability concerns are resolved.

The typical wind farm in the region is currently able to convert wind to power only 35 percent of the time and there is no way of storing what is produced other than within a narrow range of voltage and frequency.

Emma’s new facility will likely be built in the wind-power region, so that it can cover load factors when the wind dies.

Alberta is forecast to need an additional 3,800 megawatts of generating capacity over the next 10 years.

Converting coal into gas could blaze a trail to similar plants near major load centers, reducing the need for costly transmission lines.

—Gary Park