One energy consultant, who advised Summerside to increase its power generation capacity, said the city could save money by reducing its dependence on mainland imports of electricity.
The city released a draft report from Dunsky Energy Consulting on Thursday, which suggested that Summerside invest in battery storage and expand projects that utilize wind Energy to provide heat to urban homes, and use biodiesel as a backup power supply during the winter peak.
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Relying on electricity by 2025, while saving millions of dollars compared to the cost of purchasing Power from NB Power. Julie-
Ann Vincent of Dunskey Energy Consulting said that a decade ago, the concept of power generation by a small city utility company was "truly unique and a leading municipal utility.
"But with the progress of battery storage, solar energy and wind energy, more and more . . . . . . This is becoming a more realistic choice for utilities of any size, including municipal utilities.
"The Dunsky plan does not recommend the city to invest in solar energy or expand wind power, but it does include measures to maintain and further utilize the city's existing wind power, including pilot projects to invest in battery storage in early 2020.
The proposal is indeed based on some fairly important assumptions: the price of battery storage will fall sharply in the coming years, while the price of electricity imported from the mainland will continue to rise.
Vincent said that the "stacking" or layering method of increasing urban power capacity using various sources would lead to more diverse and reliable systems.
"You want to make sure that one of your capacity sources is going to go down, that you have enough other resources that are not relevant to this and that you can still keep your system running properly.
Controlling any one source of your system brings additional risks.
"In 2018, Summerside relied on its own wind power to provide electricity.
The other 53 cents were imported from New Brunswick and 1 cent from a backup diesel generator run by Summerside Electric.
The summer Council commissioned the Dunsky report as a way to explore how to improve its power generation capacity while reducing its dependence on imported energy.
The city has issued a tender to replace diesel generators, which is expected to cost up to $20 million, but the project was on hold until Dunsky reviewed it.
Even taking capital costs into account, compared to imported electricity, the plan will provide the city with net positive cash flow by 2020 and save more than millions of dollars per year by 2029, the report said.
The report says the savings can be used to lower interest rates or generate more revenue for cities.
The Dunsky plan will also reduce the city's carbon footprint, Vincent said.
Dunsky will hold two press conferences in the city to gather public feedback on its draft report and then provide the city with the final report.
There will be two open houses in February.
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