That's the asset the City of Summerside has by owning its own electric utility.
“The power plant does two functions for the Summerside electric utility,” said Greg Gaudet, director of the Summerside municipal works department. “It serves as an insurance policy for the electricity for Summerside Electric’s customers. When there’s a problem on the infrastructure that ties Summerside and Maritime Electric together and no electricity can flow through there, those generators will generate electricity for 100 per cent of the load through the night and 60 per cent through the day.
He said there is not enough capacity there to do everything all of the time but “we try to make sure that the plant has enough capacity to cover off what we call the ‘minimum loads’ through so people don’t freeze their homes.”
The electric utility operates on a 10-minute standby mode. In the electrical grid in North America there is a 10-minute reserve and the plant is maintained to be able to respond to a call to generate power within eight minutes. Two minutes for the phone call and eight minutes of physical time to start the engine and get them to full load.
“It also operates, when we need to, when the submarine cables are overloaded to Prince Edward Island,” Gaudet said. “The engines will run and take the load off the Island – in other words less electricity flows from New Brunswick so the cables don’t trip off and the Island goes into blackout.”
The wind farm has given the utility a wider portfolio. It allows for the Heat For Less program, which includes the smart meters, or MyPowerNet for heating hot water and operating space heaters within their homes.
Wind generation relates to a 69-cent per litre oil cost. With oil running at nearly $1a litre today, the savings are obvious.
Overall the ability of the city to utilize wind generated power to service the entire energy supply for the city at various times during the year, has helped keep operating costs in lines and stabilize every customer’s rate.
“By having the generation assets on the ground and in the ground that allows us to have security of supply in our own backyard,” Gaudet said. “We don’t have to rely on someone else to do something for us. We can do it ourselves.”
Power Points
The utility was built in 1896
The current power plant was built in 1924
Latest building addition was in 1983
Plant has seven engines
Can be online within 10 minutes