Let me ask a question: Is it not incredibly bad PR for a corporation to announce that they have a "secret buyer" for one of the world's most infamous sources of energy, and a source of energy that hasn't even been approved or constructed yet? Therefore, I believe in my gut that this is nothing but damage control on the part of the nuclear/tar sands industries. Yet, look at the power grid of the region that the Peace is in; they are almost at their maximum now, and yet Peace River Shell owned contracts are set (by their own projections) to go up 8- 10 times. Shell needs the energy, Energy Alberta needs a buyer and yet this article below speaks about how- far to the East of the proposed plant, a distance that would cost major energy deficits and make the delivery more and more costly-- the energy from nuclear would be no good in the Albian "oilsands" project and similar projects north of Fort Muck. This is classic disinfo, something tells me: the plan was NEVER for the energy to go to Fort Muck, it's nearly imposible to transport it there anyhow, without losing over 30% of it and making the steam (for insitu or bitumen separation) nearly pointless.
WE should read this article as a sign that we raised the alarm well enough already to force damage control, but not as a pile of facts from the two industries to be absorbed. In other words, it's a testament to our work, and not an explanation of their plans.
-M
Nuclear power buyer not for real
Firm behind Peace River reactor plan calls claim a misunderstanding
Gordon Jaremko, The Edmonton Journal
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=cc986eb9-11a2-4...
No deals or commitments have been made, said Energy Alberta Corp. public relations director Guy Huntingford, who called the claim an unfortunate misunderstanding.
There was one inquiry about the potential for such a large power supply, he said.
Huntingford said Energy Alberta, created by Calgary entrepreneurs Wayne Henuset and Hank Swartout as a marketing partner for Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., is still meeting with prospective customers who can't be named for confidentiality reasons.
The company did not purchase the Peace River site, but rather reserved it by purchasing an option to buy the land if needed for the planned $6.2-billion reactor, Huntingford said.
When Peace River was announced as the location for the proposed nuclear plant on Aug. 27, many Albertans were left wondering who Energy Alberta's claimed mystery buyer could be.
"We are really wondering who that buyer might be," said Marwan Masri, president of the Canadian Energy Research Institute.
The most popular guess, an oilsands project, especially puzzled those at the institute, a semi-official agency supported by government and business foundations that has access to industry information. Its data identifies the northern Alberta bitumen belt as a net electricity supplier, not a buyer.
A CERI study, done while Energy Alberta and AECL negotiated the Peace River reactor location, concluded northern Alberta will soon produce more electricity than it uses.
"Alberta's oilsands operators are an independent breed. The less they have to rely on anyone else the better," said a summary of the CERI report. "They need lots of steam and some electricity to produce the bitumen and synthetic crude oil, and prefer their operations to be self-sufficient if at all possible."
By spinning turbines with steam from thermal production processes, a chain of "co-generation" plants makes power for oilsands complexes and sells surpluses into the Alberta electricity grid.
North of Fort McMurray, Suncor has 410 megawatts of power generation. Syncrude makes 350 megawatts.
The Athabasca Oil Sands Project generates 340 magawatts with co-generation units at its northern mine and Scotford bitumen upgrader near Edmonton.
The Horizon and Long Lake mega-projects, currently under construction in the Fort McMurray region, both include power plants.
The oilsands project that would be closest to the proposed CANDU reactor, Shell Canada's Carmon Creek development 40 kilometres northeast of Peace River, has its own plan for steam-powered co-generation.
All the projects make excess electricity and currently sell an estimated 500 megawatts into the grid.
At Cold Lake, for instance, Imperial Oil makes 170 megawatts, enough to pump out 150,000 barrels of oil per day, with about 50 megawatts of electricity left over for sale to the grid.
Chevron Canada gave a one-word answer when asked if it would want atomic power for its Ells River project west of Fort McMurray. "No," said company spokesman Dave Pommer.
Royal Dutch Shell subsidiary Sure Northern Energy is also not using nuclear power for its bitumen leases in a new development area northwest Fort McMurray.
"It's premature for us to have made any commitment with respect to power needs," spokesman Kurt Kadatz said. "It's not really a project yet."
Test drilling is underway to determine the nature of the deposit, he said.
Companies with projects in upgrader alley northeast of Edmonton say they will decide later on a mixture of do-it-yourself power generation and purchases from the provincial grid.
No Edmonton-area development would come close to using the amount of power the Peace River reactor would generate.
The biggest project, Shell's 400,000-barrel-a-day chain of four new Scotford upgraders needs 425 megawatts -- about 19 per cent of the initial 2,200 megawatts the Peace River nuclear plant would initially produce. Regulatory applications say co-generation is a possibility and do not even mention atomic power as an option.
Only one known project, a plan by TransCanada Corp., involves electricity on the scale offered by Energy Alberta.
But TransCanada's Northern Lights Transmission proposal is dedicated to exporting excess electricity produced by oilsands complexes. The plan calls for a new power line out of Fort McMurray to run south through eastern Alberta then angle west into the northwestern United States.
TransCanada and CERI estimate oilsands co-generation could produce more than 3,000 megawatts of surplus electricity for export.
There have been no talks or contacts between the nuclear power promoters and Northern Lights, said TransCanada communications officer Shela Shapiro.
gjaremko@thejournal.canwest.com
© The Edmonton Journal 2007
