Sydney
The following provides a high-level summary of some of the comments received during Electricity System Review public consultation meetings. They do not represent a consensus or a majority of opinions, but simply comments and dialogue captured by department staff.
Sydney - September 22, 2014
Energy Sources
- Some participants thought that we should be staying with our current electricity mix for the short term, with a focus on tidal energy over the longer-term. They thought renewables should be added but not at any cost. Some thought that we should focus on the cost of electricity because when considered internationally, NS will not have big impacts on GHG emissions. Instead we should look for technical solutions like carbon capture.
- It was suggested that we need more research into our hydro potential.
- Some were skeptical about wood as a renewable source of electricity.
- Some suggested we should focus on reducing our electrical footprint and using our electricity more efficiently.
- Some expressed the view that we should limit intermittent sources of electricity or add storage.
- Some thought local production should be dependent on cost.
Innovation
- Some participants suggested that Nova Scotia does not have a large market – we are limited in terms of scale.
- Some suggested that we should have a better understanding of where and when we should be using different technologies - what makes sense for our system and users.
- Some thought that innovation will take place elsewhere, and we should focus on our opportunities such as tidal. Others suggested that we need to consider cost more carefully.
- Some felt we should keep monitoring research and development of storage technology. Are there others investing in storage and other technologies now? What can we learn from them?
- On smart grid, it was suggested we need seasonal smoothing, not just day to day.
- It was suggested that we need some certainty that energy management technologies will reduce costs if they are added to the system.
Governance
- It was suggested that our market is too small for a large number of utilities – we can’t just keep criticizing NSPI. We need to be cautious about how we proceed as other markets have seen huge failure. NSPI is still a Nova Scotia company; and we want tax revenues etc. to stay in Nova Scotia.
- Some felt competition should equal more consumer choice.
- One person suggested we need to stop responding to negative and ill-informed public outrage rather than what is actually best for the province, scoring political points on the back of the utility. They suggeste that the UARB process has become far too adversarial.
- One person thought there was a problem with competition – someone should be managing the performance of production as a whole, not just rely on who can produce it the cheapest.
- Some thought the utility should be measured by reliability standards – benchmarking with other utilities. It was noted that the public should know how we compare with other utilities.
- Some commented that we are holding NSPI to account for decisions made when the utility was still public (coal plants). Diversifying electricity was their choice.
- Many thought performance standards should account for outage frequency, length of outages, and environmental standards.