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INTRODUCTION:
Electricity is electromagnetic field energy that flows in close proximity to guiding conductors. The energy propagation velocity is a large fraction of the speed of light.
Due to climate change constraints on use of fossil fuels electricity should be used for long distance transmission of energy.
This website section examines practical aspects of the Ontario electricity system including:
generation, energy storage, transmission, distribution, measurement, control, reliability and rates.
This website section includes synthetic hydrocarbon synthesis for energy storage and hydrocarbon fuel transport via pipe lines.
In order for non-fossil electricity to economically displace fossil fuels there must be a retail electricity rate that will enable increasing the average power delivered to electricity customers via the existing transmission-distribution system and the cost of marginal electrical energy outside of grid peak load periods must be sufficiently low to enable energy storage and fossil fuel displacement.
The retail electricity rate and metering must allow both "uninterruptible" and "interruptible" electricity usage by each electricity customer.
"Uninterruptible" electricity is highly reliable electricity that is instantly available at any time on user demand. "Uninterruptible" electricity is intended for applications where continuous electricity availability and reliability are more important than the electricity cost. In Ontario most consumers are supplied "uninterruptible" electricity.
"Discount" electricity is lower cost electricity that is reliably available except on a few days per year of extreme weather when the customer contracts to reduce its demand in exchange for a discounted electricity rate for the balance of the year. In Ontario "discount" electricity is currently supplied via demand response programs.
"Interruptible" electricity is low cost but unreliable non-fossil electrical energy that is surplus to the immediate "uninterruptible" and "discount" electricity supply requirements. "Interruptible" electricity is primarily intended for displacement of fossil fuels in hydrogen generation and in hybrid heating systems. In Ontario there is usually "interruptible" electricity available at night when fossil fueled electricity generation is shut down.
At times of non-fossil electricity surplus the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) can broadcast signals to disable selected smart meter peak demand calculations and to enable corresponding "interruptible" electricity loads. At times of non-fossil electricity deficiency the IESO can broadcast signals to re-enable peak demand calculations and to disable "interruptible" electricity loads. Thus in terms of power system reliability "interruptible" loads can replace reserve generation.
To meet electricity system total revenue requirements the blended price of "uninterruptible" electricity must be much higher than the price of "interruptible" electricity. To prevent gaming of the electricity system the cost / kWh must be the same for both "uninterruptible" and "interruptible" electricity. Hence practical implementation of the contemplated new retail electricity rate involves use of the smart meters to levy a charge per measured monthly peak kW or peak kVA as well as a charge per kWh. The price per marginal kWh must be sufficiently low (~ $0.02 / kWh) to financially enable use of available off-peak non-fossil electricity for economic displacement of fossil fuels.
The price per measured monthly peak kW or peak kVA must be set sufficiently high ($30.00 / kW to $70.00 / kW depending on demand diversity) to meet the electricity system gross revenue requirement including the Global Adjustment.
The price per monthly peak kW should be initially chosen so that the uninterruptible electricity cost of an average consumer is unaffected by the rate structure change.
The 90% step response time of the kW or kVA metering should be chosen as 4.2 hours to enable easy metering and to reasonably reflect demand diversity and hence the actual cost of meeting the provincial peak load with peaking generation.
Implementation of this new electricity rate structure will eventually lead to installation of energy storage (eg an electric DHW storage tank, electric vehicle, hybrid heating) and load control in almost every building in Ontario.
However, after spending over $2 billion on smart electricity meters the Ontario government has failed to offer an "interruptible" electricity rate to encourage use of low cost renewable energy when it is available. That failure is presently costing the Ontario electricity rate payers over one billion dollars per year in combined lost electricity revenue and excess fossil fuel costs and is causing major unnecessary emission of fossil CO2.
To implement the contemplated new electricity rate there must be an Ontario legislative change that allows Global Adjustment recovery via a charge per measured monthly peak kW or peak kVA instead of via a charge per measured kWh consumed.
This rate concept is not new. During the early 1990s similar electricity rates were provided by Toronto Hydro and Scarborough Hydro to owners of major buildings. During the late 1990s these rates were terminated by politicians who thought that they were smarter than power system engineers. As a result today Ontario wastes large amounts of non-fossil generation capacity and has one of the highest retail electricity rates in continental North America.
In recent years multiple tens of billions of dollars of Ontario ratepayers money have been squandered on wind and solar electricity generation which, absent sufficient energy storage, are incapable of reliably meeting the non-fossil power needs of Ontario. More billions of dollars are currently being squandered by both federal and provincial governments through failure to authorize construction of additional nuclear reactor capacity for displacement of fossil fuels in the transportation and heating sectors and through failure to adopt a much more efficient and much less polluting nuclear fuel cycle.
A related issue is that efficient use of surplus non-fossil electricity to displace natural gas causes the blended price of natural gas to increase because the fixed costs of natural gas pipeline network depreciation and maintenance must be borne by decreasing amounts of natural gas consumed. In an attempt to retain market share the fossil fuel industry has lobbied governments to prevent adoption of electricity rate structures that enable efficient use of surplus non-fossil electricity for displacement of fossil fuels.
In this author's view it is essential for governments to prevent further expanison of the natural gas distribution network except as a means for distributing electrolytic hydrogen. All new buildings, new vehicles and major energy retrofits must function without use of fossil fuels. Even so it will take many years to fully amortize the existing dedicated fossil fuel infrastructure.
The fossil fuel industry rightly regards nuclear energy production as an existential threat and, in spite of the CO2 emission consequences, has conducted a misinformation campaign to prevent widespread adoption of nuclear power.
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This web page last updated March 25, 2018.
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