Power industry plugs into team effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions

Alberta’s electricity industry, the provincial government and environmentalists are co-operating on a first-ever initiative to reduce air pollution from power-generating plants.

And despite the Alberta government’s fierce opposition to the Kyoto climate change accord, one of the five substances targeted for cuts is carbon dioxide – the main greenhouse gas blamed for global warming.

“We’re breaking new ground,” says David Spink, Alberta Environment’s director of special projects and government’s co-chair of the Electricity Project Team.

“It’s a matter for our team to decide what the best strategy is for getting these reductions and when they should occur,” Spink says.

The Clean Air Strategic Alliance (CASA), a multi-stakeholder group that includes industry, government and environmentalists, is spearheading the new initiative at the provincial government’s request.

Power generators account for the second-highest amount of greenhouse gas emissions in the province – 23 per cent of the estimated total 214 million tonnes in 1999, according to Alberta Environment.

Fossil fuel production emits the most greenhouse gases – 36 per cent. However, that includes 22 per cent of emissions resulting from fossil fuel energy exports to the U.S., seven per cent from energy produced for the rest of Canada and seven per cent from energy that stays in Alberta.

Along with reducing greenhouse gases in the electricity sector, the CASA team is responsible for coming up with a management plan to reduce emissions of four power plant air pollutants. They are:

* sulphur oxides (SOx) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), which contribute to acid rain and smog.
* fine particulate matter, the microscopic “grit” from smokestacks that studies identify as a heart and lung
hazard.
* mercury, a toxic heavy metal that’s considered dangerous at any level to the nervous system.

“This is the largest initiative that CASA has ever undertaken,” says Rocky Mountain House environmentalist Martha Kostuch, co-chair of the new CASA team, who is representing the environmental community.

Alberta now regulates SOx, NOx and particulate matter at individual power plants, while mercury emissions and greenhouse gases aren’t yet subject to controls.
Kostuch said she believes there are better ways than the plant-by-plant basis to manage air quality, both from
environmental and economic perspectives. “That is, to have less air pollution and at less cost.”

The CASA team met last week in Calgary where, over two days, experts outlined more than 80 specific emission-management tools used in Alberta, other provinces and the United States.

Such tools include new regulations to limit emissions, emissions-trading programs for SOx, NOx and greenhouse gases, energy efficiency-conservation incentives, and standards that require a certain percentage of new generation to come from clean, renewable energy sources.

Jason Edworthy, executive director of Vision Quest Windelectric Inc., a Calgary-based wind-energy producer, told the CASA team that southern Alberta alone has 18,000 megawatts of potential wind-generation capacity.

If the Alberta government matched the recently announced federal wind-energy incentive program, Alberta would probably see 1,000 MW of wind power within five years instead of the projected 300 MW, Edworthy says. The province now has only about 100 MW of wind energy installed.

Spink said the CASA team will analyze all the emission-management tools and seek public feedback on its management options. However, he noted that the provincial government “is very interested in pursuing the possibility of emissions trading,” especially to reduce greenhouse gases.

Another option the team heard about was “public benefits” programs, which are funded by a small surcharge paid by electricity consumers.

Several U.S. states that – like Alberta – have deregulated their electricity market are using such programs to pay for energy efficiency-conservation programs, says Martin Kushler of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

The typical cost to consumers ranges from an extra one-tenth to three-tenths of a cent per kilowatt-hour of electricity, he says. “It’s almost not noticeable on your bill.”

Kushler says that in a major study, the American council found that power producers, electricity retailers, government regulators and consumers all said public benefits programs achieved worthwhile energy efficiency goals, “and they represented a good consensus among the various parties that put them together.”

“I don’t see any reason why this kind of policy couldn’t be successful here (in Canada) as well,” Kushler adds.
In Alberta, more than 70 per cent of the province’s electricity is generated by coal-fired power plants, which emit more greenhouse gases per unit of electricity produced than cleaner-burning natural gas-fired facilities.

Emissions from coal-fired plants will rise, because EPCOR and TransAlta have approval to expand their Genesee and Keephills generators west of Edmonton.

Spink says that provincial regulators require EPCOR to “offset” or reduce the greenhouse gases from its Genesee 3 expansion to the level that would be produced by a similar-sized combined cycle gas-fired plant. One way of accomplishing this would be through emissions trading.

The team plans to have its recommendations on a management approach ready for CASA’s governing board in June 2003. If the board approves the approach, the Alberta government – which is represented on the board – would be expected to implement it shortly thereafter.

Kostuch says she hopes the unprecedented collaboration will mean “cleaner air for Albertans to breathe, and that Alberta’s air will be less damaging to the climate of the world.”