Jason Unrau
Northern News Services

(July 08/05) - Monitoring stations are now installed in several Northern communities to study the potential of wind-generated electricity, as a way of offsetting the amount of diesel fuel needed to provide power.

Power needs by community Inuvik installed capacity - 2.1 and 2.8 megawatt gas engines supply base load with four diesel backups, one 720 kW, two 2,500 kW and one 300 kW. peak load requirement - five megawatts (2001/2002) fuel tanks - 7.5 million litres diesel supplied by barge (includes Fort McPherson and Tsiigehtchic requirements). Natural gas supplied by Inuvialuit Petroleum Corp. via pipeline from Ikhil gas field. Paulatuk installed capacity - 800 kW provided by three diesel generators - two 300 kW and one 200 kW. peak load requirement - 216 kW (2001/2002). fuel tanks - One 90,000 litre tank Holman installed capacity - 1,140 kW provided by three diesel generators; one 480 kW, one 360 kW and one 300 kW. peak load requirement - 435 kW (2001/2002). fuel tanks - One 90,000 litre tank; fuel is piped in from the GNWT tank farm once per month. Sachs Harbour installed capacity - 790 kW provided by three diesel generators, one 300 kW, one 270 kW and one 220 kW. peak load requirement - 230 kW (2001/2002) fuel tanks - total capacity 510,000 litres in five tanks, diesel barged in once a year. - Source: Northwest Territories Power Corporation

"It's quite possible that wind turbines would save on the impact of burning diesel," said J.P. Pinard, a consultant hired to conduct the study for the Aurora Research Institute. "What would be ideal is a 100 per cent penetration (of wind over diesel power) but we're looking at 50 per cent."

While wind monitoring will occur in Inuvik, currently generating the bulk of its electricity by natural gas, the diesel-dependent communities of Sachs Harbour, Holman and Paulatuk are also included in the study, with hopes of attracting businesses interested in investing in the turbine technology.

According to Pinard, who has been studying the viability of wind-generated electricity for seven years, the southern market cost of employing this technology is approximately $1,000 per kilowatt.

"A 500 kilowatt turbine is about $500,000 but up here it's about four times that," he said, citing transportation and servicing in remote locations as the reason for the inflated cost.

But with the introduction of Kyoto Accord measures in Canada and crude oil surpassing the $60 per barrel mark, what had been considered uneconomical for the North is once again being explored.

"We're working with the (Aurora Research) institute and re-examining our numbers," said Northwest Territories Power Corp. (NTPC) president and CEO Leon Courneya about NTPC's past involvement in studying turbine technology.

"It's not like the electrician could drive an hour down the road to service something in Sachs Harbour," he added, highlighting the expense of maintaining the turbines. Courneya says NTPC began looking at the alternative power source in 1985 when it installed a turbine in Cambridge Bay.

With the help of federal government financing, several communities followed suit, including Sachs Harbour, Rankin Inlet and Kuglugtuk, formerly Coppermine.

"Back then, the savings weren't so much but now with higher fuel prices, it could stabilize the cost (of providing power) for some communities," he said.

"You still don't do away with diesel power, even our plants with natural gas always have a diesel backup. From an economics point of view, the savings would come from the diesel you wouldn't need to use."

Not taking into consideration the rate of inflation, the power corporation's cost of providing diesel fuel to Delta communities has risen 24.69 cents per litre since March 2000, an increase of nearly 57 per cent.

At the ARI last Thursday, Bill Crossman, manager of Inuvik operations for the institute, watched Pinard resurrect the wind turbine. It's predecessor was destroyed in a motor vehicle accident last year.

Learn the technology

"This is a display project so people can get an idea of what the technology is all about," he said of the one kilowatt turbine now standing outside the facility.

Crossman says last year's wind data, collected by airports at the involved communities, will be compared to those garnered by the new monitoring stations.

"The (airport) data is from a once-a-day reading and from about 10 m off the ground," he said.

"We need readings from 30 m and continuous monitoring to figure out the most viable place to put the turbines in each community."