Looking for ‘nation-building' projects? Here's one
Canada's prime minister Mark Carney has made much of the idea that this country should move quickly on 'nation-building' projects, ones that could both help the Canadian economy during tariff attacks from the U.S. and at the same time improve quality of life for Canadians.
An idea for one of those projects?
How about a modernized national electrical grid, one that builds capacity for future electricity needs, keeps Canadian power in Canada and moves it far more seamlessly both east and west? (A tip of the hat here to Norman Brandson, who mentions the grid idea in his op-ed Wab Kinew — not a climate change denialist and planted the seed for this editorial.)
Nathan Denette / THE CANADIAN PRESS files
Prime Minister Mark Carney
There are many hurdles to jump, not the least of them being that under the Canadian constitution the provinces control the production and distribution of electricity within their borders and several provinces have built their own little energy fiefdoms based on the good fortune of the natural resources they happen to have.
Those with power to sell — Manitoba included — have primarily built connections south to American markets with an eye to provincial financial returns rather than considering the good of Canada as a whole. As well, there has been a history of provincial utilities discouraging the transfer of power through their grids by setting high 'wheeling rates' for that transmission.
But it doesn't have to be that way.
Striking out provincial barriers to the transfer of electrical power, setting a national panel for reasonable and fair wheeling rates and dropping internal trade barriers would make the Canadian electrical power system more robust, more efficient and better able to face the future.
In a paper way back in 1991 in the journal Transactions of the Engineering and Operating Division of the Canadian Electrical Association, E.L. Fytche wrote succinctly, 'Wheeling in Canada is different from the situation in the U.S.A., due to large distances spanned by Canadian utilities and because most are provincial Crown corporations, with different territorial interests and profit motivations than investor-owned utilities. Most trading in electricity has been between contiguous neighbours, for mutual advantage.'
We can do better than that.
We could wean ourselves away from the American market, allowing contracts with U.S. utilities to expire while improving reliability in our own backyard.
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The numbers look like this, according to the Canada Energy Regulator: 'All of Canada's electricity trade is with the U.S. In 2023, Canada exported 49.4 Terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity. These were valued at $4.3 billion. In 2023 Canada imported 16.7 TWh of electricity, valued at $1.6 billion in 2023.'
The imports have by and large been for temporary shortages in individual provinces — something that could be mitigated by a national grid. Such a grid, of course, is something provincial utilities don't really see the immediate value of because they are more concerned with provincial supply and the cost of electricity in their particular provinces.
The exports have primarily been for profit.
If there was a comprehensive electrical grid in Canada, that power currently being exported to the U.S. could be sold and used inside this country, displacing other high-cost sources. It would also be cleaner energy than some current sources. And, unlike a pipeline that might serve the commercial interests of particular provinces when downloading environmental risks on others, the grid would serve the whole nation. (As a sideline, the construction would provide a market for a Canadian metals industry facing hefty tariff barriers.)
We're going to need more electrical power in coming years. Wouldn't it be better to have a system that lets us buy it inside the country, from our own generation?
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