Managing Water Shortages in the Western Electricity Grids

Hugh Scorah, Amy Sopinka and Gerrit van Kooten

No 2010-03, Working Papers from University of Victoria, Department of Economics, Resource Economics and Policy Analysis Research Group

Abstract: British Columbia’s electricity grid is comprised primarily of hydroelectric generating assets. The ability to store water in reservoirs is a significant advantage for the province allowing it to import from Alberta when prices are favourable. Alberta, has a heavily fossil-fuel based electricity portfolio, but has seen substantial growth in its wind energy capacity. However this variable energy technology impacts the province’s grid operations. Wind energy is both variable and uncertainty. However, wind energy in Alberta can be stored via BC’s reservoir systems. In this paper, we examine the extent that drought impacts the both overall operating costs as well as the cost of reducing CO2 emissions. We model the Alberta and BC interconnected grids varying both the impact of the drought and the transmission capacity between the provinces. We determine that storing wind energy leads to an overall cost reduction and that emission costs are between $20 and $60 per tonne of CO2.

Keywords: Wind power; carbon costs; electrical grids; mathematical programming (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C61 Q41 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 25 pages
Date: 2010-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene and nep-env
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Related works:
Working Paper: Managing Water Shortages in the Western Electricity Grids (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rep:wpaper:2010-03

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