This whole power generation and consumption world has fascinated me for the last week or so. While I’m not too strong in the maths and don’t understand the intricate workings of the electrical system I think I may be onto something.
Our local power company, Maritime Electric, is proposing to build a new 50 Megawatt diesel generator in our downtown core. This generator would only be used during future peak times that the company predicts it will not be able to serve with its current supply of electricity. Hold that thought.
I’ve been replacing the lightbulbs in my new home with the new compact energy saving ones. On average they produce the same amount of brightness while consuming one fifth of the energy a comparable normal bulb would consume. For example: I have a hallway in my home that used to have four 60 Watt bulbs lighting it a total of 240 watts. When replaced with energy saving bulbs my total watts was only 52 watts for the same amount of light.
If I combine those two thoughts with some basic math I am pretty sure we don’t really need a new 50 Megawatt generator, we need new lightbulbs. I’m admittedly an amateur when it comes to ohms, watts, volts, etc so please tell me if I’m horribly way off base.
| Households | 45,000 |
| Average number of lightbulbs per house | 15 |
| Average wattage per light bulb | 70 |
| Average on time a day per light bulb | 2 hours |
| Total Wattage comsumed/day | 94,500,000 |
| Total wattage if we used new light bulbs 1/5 normal lightbulbs |
18,900,000 |
| Savings in watts/day | 75, 600,00 |
| Total Wattage output of a 50 Megawatt Generator | 50,000,000 |
| Cost of new 50 Megawatt Generator | 35 million |
| Cost per lightbulb to replace (high estimate) | $4 |
| Cost to replace all household lightbulbs | 2.7 million |
So what am I missing? How come our power company doesn’t just buy us all new lightbulbs instead of building a huge new diesel generator?
Comments
Jeff Smith - November 29, 2004 2:35 pm
I'm thinking one of Maritime Electric's major motivations behind this new diesel generator is the fact that the more electricity they provide for Islanders to consume, the more profit they stand to make. I totally agree with you on the issue, don't get me wrong. But you still have to consider that Maritime Electric's major perogative is to make money for it's shareholders and owners.
Alan - November 29, 2004 3:37 pm
They at MECL are doing everything they can to maintain their monopoly in the province to the point of advocating this not-really-needed development - as your good math proves. A third cable would also do everything that this generator would do for a lot less.
They could be planning, however, on using it to feed other markets with short term emergency power. There are 10 minute and 30 minute emergency supplies that are commodities in themselves and are required to ensure the electrification of an area of transmission does not drop too low. This stuff sell for way more per Kw than simple long-term contract supply and does not need a third cable as, by powering up on the PEI side of the cable, demand on the cable drops rather than increases (due to netting off the flow coming in otherwise). Big export revenue opportunity for them if that is part of the plan. Otherwise, it does not appear to make sense.
Robert Paterson - November 29, 2004 3:39 pm
Excellent point Dan
All the literature about going off the grid tells us that before you add one watt, you have to reduce your load.
None of the conservation work has been discussed yet alone begun. As jeff says, the issue is a conflict of interest. ME's interest is for us to use more power. The utility has to be restructured to be only a netwrk with a ROC on the network.
Isn't this the problem with phone networks as well. They make their money of usage and not the network. This model doesn't work any more. But just complaining about how awful they are will not help either.
We need a new design and a new ownership model
Rusty - December 2, 2004 2:38 pm
"Windmills installed around the world converting their direct current into alternating current and feeding the electric energy into the world network can harvest the planet Earth's prime daily energy income source - the wind - and adequately supply all the world's energy needs." - R. Buckminster Fuller.
Check out his windmill design:
http://www.buckminster.info/Ideas/10-EndEnergyWindmillDome.htm
Doug Ransom - December 5, 2004 8:13 pm
Dude,
isn't PEI more of a heating climate than a cooling one? If you lights aren't heating your house, what is? Electric or home-heating (diesel) fuel or maybe natural gas.
Charles - December 6, 2004 3:19 am
Hey Dan,
The problem with power generation is more the peaks than the total amount of power being used. For instance, between 5pm-6pm you get a big jump in the amount of power that needs to be provided for that one hour. If you can't pull it all from the mainland, you either need to store it in advance (pull it from the mainland earlier in the day and store it in big, expensive, short-lifetime batteries) or generate it locally.
Also, your math is a little off. It gets dark around 5pm these days, and most households have somebody awake until around 11pm, so you've got 6 hours of usage instead of 2 in the winter. I suppose it helps if people turn the lights off when they leave a room, but I don't know how common that is. Again, it's about peak demand, not averages.
All in all, PEI starting to generate more of it's own power is probably a good thing. But personally, I don't think a deisel generator located in downtown Charlottetown is a great solution. Natural gas alternatives, more wind power, or even putting the plant elsewhere (putting an ugly, smelly, factory right in the middle of downtown isn't going to do much for Charlottetown's problem of attracted more people and businesses) really should have gotten more consideration.
neozen - January 3, 2005 12:14 pm
obviously they will never do this. why? money.
it would obviously be cheaper for them to just give the lightbulbs away than making the new plant, but that would mean that the users consume less which, in the long term, will mean a huge reduction in profit for them. they rather pay for the huge new plant, which will eventualy get paid by the users every month.
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