Research
The Future Grid in a Dynamic Spiral
Energy Transition from fossil fuel derived power sources to that of clean, renewably sourced, electricity enabling total electrification has emerged as the overriding challenge for humankind in the first quarter of the 21st century. Ensuring energy security, adapting to climate change, and embracing the low carbon economy were among the critical factors for this paradigm shift. “Soft revolutions†in renewable generation, battery storage, and power electronics, technologically enabled the energy transition to clean electricity. A pivotal advance in total electrification of our society, empowering the electricity value chain, is propelling the rapid transformation of the existing power grid into the “Future Gridâ€. This global, evolutionary, development based on a combination of techno-economical and psycho-social understanding of electricity systems is seen as an absolute priority target in the current decade. An expected goal and result of this development is that alternate current (AC)/direct current (DC) grids merge.
Uncovering the Atlantic Wholesale Electricity Market
To ensure successful steps to a low carbon economy and total electrification, commitments to deep decarbonization in North America require regional power system integration. The most efficient solution for regional power integration, enabling competitive electricity wholesale is proven by Regional Transmission Organizations (RTO). The RTO concept and practices ensure high efficiency and reliability of regional electricity markets and power transmission system operations. To improve power integration of regional and inter-regional electricity trade using an RTO approach, the last frontiers for organized wholesale markets in North America should be identified, addressed and resolved. One of important frontiers for competitive regional electricity wholesale in North America is presented by Atlantic Canada. An Atlantic RTO (ARTO) here manifests a key upgrade and an important component of the Canadian Electricity System addressing its generation mix, transmission structure and regulatory framework, and advancing inter-regional East-West and North-South power integration. The ARTO would enable best-in-class regulations that strengthen existing policies for the electricity sector and should be seen as a compelling high priority in leveraging the Clean Grid 2035 target in Canada. A collaborative framework for the ARTO decision-making can be used to identify and financially support inter-regional electricity transmission projects and outline their governance, cost allocation, and funding components. The ARTO is positioned as a critically important regional integration advancement in Canada’s deep decarbonization pathways. Strong connection between Deep Decarbonization and Deep Regional/Inter-regional Electricity Market Integration concepts and practices reinforces the role of the Atlantic RTO in realizing Canada’s 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan. It ensures the benefits of electricity market integration in Atlantic Canada such as increased diversity of generation mix, improved system reliability, increased supply security and demand diversity. Prompt deployment and operation of the Atlantic RTO would make the region more competitive nationally and internationally. Timely coordination and cooperation of the government, private, academic, and civil electricity sub-sectors on multiple levels in the Atlantic region is suggested so as to achieve the ARTO deployment within the 2025-2035 timeframe. As a part of the cooperative action, the ARTO development and deployment would greatly benefit from the existing electricity system operator skillset of the industry in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The civil electricity sub-sector should be promptly engaged with deep participation of Canada’s First Nations so as to leverage personal, organizational, and societal developments in the region.
Dispatchable Renewables: Selecting a Right Pathway
Clean Grid readiness is a major objective of Canada’s Clean Grid 2035 efforts and commitment to make all electricity generation in the country carbon net-zero. Making all the sources of electricity in power grids clean would be a tremendous step in Canada’s energy transition and low carbon economy growth. Deploying on a very large scale variable renewables such as wind and solar in Canada requires an extremely significant power dispatchability effort, allowing the country’s power grids to maintain their reliability. Dispatchable generation refers to controllable and flexible sources of electricity that can promptly respond to demand at the request of power grid operators. The Clean Grid 2035 commitment assumes that all existing and new power dispatchability sources in Canada backing up variable renewables’ operations are clean. Choosing to have the renewable segment of clean dispatchability sources lead in Canada’s Clean Grid efforts and creating renewable dispatchable fleets – the clean power generation fleets that will make all variable renewables in the country dispatchable. Canada’s extremely strong reservoir-based dispatchable hydro power generation in Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec and Manitoba can participate in these fleets to back up variable renewables’ growth in the country. Canada’s unique geothermal power generation in the Pacific Rim, including the regions of northeastern British Columbia and southern Yukon, northern Alberta and southern Northwest Territories, constitutes very high potential for highly dispatchable electricity generation to participate in renewable dispatchable fleets. The proposed approach to using hydropower as a variable dispatchability reserve for Eastern Canada and combining hydropower and geothermal power as dispatchability reserves for Western Canada will make variable renewables dispatchable, upgrading all power grids in Canada to 100% Clean Grid readiness by 2035 and maintaining this Clean Grid commitment in 2050 and beyond. Using dispatchable hydropower and geothermal power together with wind and solar power in Renewable Dispatchable Fleets would make all renewable capacity dispatchable, establishing leading clean dispatchability practices in North America. To agree on Renewable Dispatchable Fleets deployment and existing Renewable Dispatchability Reserves commitments from the provinces owning and operating large scale reservoir-based hydro power plants, Canada’s “electric federalism†concept and approach should be demonstrated efficiently and promptly.
Towards Canada’s Transcontinental Supergrid: AC/DC Transmission Merge Solutions
A major coordinated effort promoted to move clean electricity “freely from coast to coast†is related to Canada’s Transcontinental Supergrid interconnecting all its provinces through highest-quality power transmission. The proposed Canada’s Supergrid would enable and ensure reliability, resilience and energy security of each of the provincial transmission grids and the Transcontinental Supergrid as a whole. Supergrid presents the infrastructure for Canada’s emerging national electricity market. It is backed up by inter-regional scale wholesale experiences of the Australian National Electricity Market, European Internal Electricity Market and wholesale electricity markets administered by Regional Transmission Organizations in the U.S. For Transcontinental Supergrid planning, adjusted total transfer capability limits for interprovincial and international transmission paths are proposed to establish an interprovincial coast-to-coast transfer capability target. In Supergrid transmission planning, High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) is seen as a key Supergrid segment leading in today’s AC/DC Transmission Merge. HVDC has demonstrated globally major improvements in its capabilities, increasingly needed to enhance the existing AC grid upgrade. HVDC multi-value makes it highly competitive technically and economically. High capacity, long-distance, controllable, multi-terminal HVDC technology is particularly valuable for transcontinental transmission across multiple jurisdictions. HVDC Back-to-Back (B2B) solutions for provincial interties and international interconnections present a compelling case for the Supergrid planning. A set of eight HVDC Voltage Source Converter (VSC)-based B2B stations, 4,860 MW in total, is proposed as a core Supergrid Solution to leverage prompt planning and deployment of Canada’s Supergrid.
