Canada NEB starts Energy East pipeline review

Canada's National Energy Board has ruled that the applications are complete for the Energy East Pipeline Project and a related gas project.  This determination starts the NEB's review process, under which the Board must issue its recommendations to the Minister of Natural Resources within 21 months.

The National Energy Board is an independent federal regulator of several parts of Canada's energy industry, including the regulation of pipelines, energy development and trade in the Canadian public interest.

As envisioned by proponents TransCanada and Energy East Pipeline Ltd., Energy East would be a 4,500-kilometer pipeline that will transport approximately 1.1 million barrels of crude oil per day from Alberta and Saskatchewan to the refineries of Eastern Canada and a marine terminal in New Brunswick.  Some existing natural gas pipeline would be converted to oil transportation pipeline, while other facilities would be newly built.  The project is motivated in part by a relative surplus of Western Canadian crude production, with relatively few ways to ship that crude to refineries or ports.

The related Eastern Mainline Project entails about 279 kilometers of new gas pipeline and related components, designed to let TransCanada continue to supply gas after the proposed transfer of certain Canadian Mainline facilities to Energy East Pipeline Ltd. for conversion to crude oil service.

On June 16, 2016, the National Energy Board announced its determination that due to the interconnections between the applications, the Energy East and Eastern Mainline projects are more effectively assessed within a single hearing process, with one record, reviewed by one Panel of Board Members.   It also deemed the applications complete to proceed to assessment and a public hearing, starting the 21-month review process.

The Panel must submit a report to the Minister of Natural Resources recommending whether or not the projects should proceed, or on what conditions. This report is due no later than March 16, 2018.  According to the NEB, the process will include hearings, panel sessions, and assessments of the upstream greenhouse gas emissions associated with the project.

Vermont issues updated energy plan

Vermont energy regulators have completed an update of key energy and electricity plans for that state. The Vermont Department of Public Service has updated the Vermont Comprehensive Energy Plan (CEP) and Electric Plan, two plans required by law to be complete and adopted by January 1, 2016, and updated every six years thereafter. 

The updated Comprehensive Energy Plan reaffirms Vermont's overall goal of achieving 90 percent of its total energy needs from renewable sources by 2050, adds interim goals (including reaffirming the statutory goal of 25% by 2025), and provides greater detail on Vermont’s pathways towards achieving these goals.  In particular, the plan includes the following new and more detailed goals:

• Reduce total energy consumption per capita by 15% by 2025, and by more than one third by 2050.
• Meet 25% of the remaining energy need from renewable sources by 2025, 40% by 2 035, and 90% by 2050.
• Three end-use sector goals for 2025: 10% renewable transportation, 30% renewable buildings, and 67% renewable electric power.
• Greenhouse gas reduction goals include: 40% reduction below 1990 levels by 2030, and 80% to 95% reduction below 1990 levels by 2050.

Conversion of heat and transportation applications to "highly efficient electric technologies, such as heat pumps and electric vehicles," is one strategy highlighted in the plan.  The plan also includes a 20-year electric plan, based on the principles of least-cost planning, that serves as a basis for Vermont electricity policy.

Utilities switching from coal to gas

Utilities around the country are closing or converting older coal-fired power plants, and increasing the use of natural gas.  Pressure to make this shift comes from several factors, including tighter regulation of air emissions and the low price of natural gas compared to recent history.

The stacks of the Salem Harbor Power Station rise above Cat Cove in Salem, Massachusetts.  Dominion announced last year that it would close this plant, which it then sold to Footprint Power.

One electric generation plant that may illustrate this trend is Dominion Virginia Power's Bremo Power Station on the James River in central Virginia.  Originally built by the Virginia Electric & Power Company in 1931, the plant can now produce 227 megawatts of electricity by burning coal to boil water; the resulting steam spins turbines attached to electric generators.  According to Dominion, the Bremo plant consumes an average of 2,500 tons of coal per day.

This week Dominion announced plans to convert the Bremo plant from coal to natural gas.  In a filing with the Virginia State Corporation Commission, the regulatory body responsible for electric utilities, Dominion asked for approval to convert the plant over the next year at an estimated cost of $53.4 million.  If the SCC approves the conversion, the utility anticipates stopping coal consumption at the plant by the fall of 2013.

Dominion had previously agreed to convert the Bremo Power Station by spring 2014 as part of the air permit it received for the 585-megawatt Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center.  That plant entered commercial operations in July of this year, burning a mix of coal and biomass.

Dominion describes the Bremo conversion as being the ninth company-owned, coal-fired power station with units recently announced to be closed or converted to alternative fuels.  The utility points to the uneconomic nature of operating smaller, older coal-fired stations given the spread of cheaper natural gas and new environmental regulations requiring operators to retrofit plants with upgraded emission control equipment.  According to Dominion, the Bremo conversion would allow consumers to save about $155 million when compared to continued operation on coal.

Other utilities are making similar conversions or are considering closing some existing coal-fired plants. Natural gas consumption is on the rise, particularly in the electric generation sector.  At the same time, many utilities continue to rely on coal as part of their generation portfolio, as evidenced by Dominion's construction of the the primarily coal-fired Virginia City plant.  The trend appears to be one of closing or converting older or smaller coal-fired plants, consolidating coal consumption in larger, newer plants and increasing the use of natural gas to produce power.