Neven Produce Inc., a greenhouse operation near Brantford, Ontario, was recently awarded a contract for 3.2 MW of CHP under the CHPSOP program. Actual installation is still a year away, owner James Neven explains. Most of the engineering is complete, including selection of the particular genset and supplier – a Jenbacher unit from GE.
The next step is to firm up grid access with Hydro One, Mr. Neven says. Before offering a contract under the CHPSOP program, the IESO conducts a preliminary screening to determine the availability of connection capacity, and contracts are only awarded by the IESO if there is a very high likelihood of connection. A small risk exists that other types of connection applications in the queue, i.e. from proponents without IESO contracts, might hook up first and use up the available line capacity. Although projects like Neven’s have a high level of connection assurance from the IESO, the project will not be absolutely firm until it has full confirmation of connection from the distributor. This technical procedure is called a Connection Impact Assessment. It is a regulated process involving the distributor and potentially the transmitter, designed to ensure a safe and reliable connection is made for all projects. During this process, the requirements for the connection are determined, along with costs, and communicated back to the customer. At that point the customer can decide if he or she wants to proceed and enter into a contractual agreement for the construction work. Confirming connection availability is a significant problem for about a half dozen greenhouse projects, generally in the Leamington area in Ontario, he believes. All need to wait a full year before they can formally apply for connection, at which point the new Leamington TS will be further advanced. When the new TS is fully operational, projected for 2018, significantly more connection capacity will become available.
As part of the conditions for a CHPSOP contract, each greenhouse operator had to be able to prove how much heat it would be able to use, Mr. Neven continues. Full use of the heat in the winter is easily demonstrated, but even on summer nights – lately early morning temperatures have been dropping into the low teens – greenhouses like to keep the temperature inside at 20º Celsius. In addition, they use the heat to vent the greenhouse to reduce humidity in the early morning, using heat generated during the day and stored in a water silo.
In fact, the Nevens have been generating heat for these purposes all along, using a natural gas boiler. The difference now is that the heat can be a by-product from the CHP unit. In the summer the unit will run when the spot price of power rises above their cost of production. In effect, a key part of the justification of the CHP facility, aside from the contract price for electricity itself, is the added value of the byproduct heat that displaces heat they’re already paying for.
The potential also exists to inject carbon dioxide from the CHP installation into the greenhouse, after it’s been scrubbed of other gases. The extra CO2 boosts the plants’ productivity. It’s a common practice in Europe, but the Nevens are not planning to incorporate the ability at this point.
A secondary system benefit of the cogen unit is backup power that can be made available to the owners of the system in the event of system outages or constraints.
In a related development, on July 16, 2015, the OEB issued a Decision and Order granting Hydro One “Leave to Construct” the Supply to Essex County Transmission Reinforcement (SECTR) project. The project includes a new 13 km 230 kV double circuit transmission line in the Windsor-Essex region and the construction of a new transformer station, Leamington TS, in the Municipality of Leamington. The project is intended to address both system needs and the capacity needs to accommodate projected load growth in the area. It will also provide a further benefit of allowing for the connection of additional generation in the Kingsville-Leamington area.
See also "92 MW contracted under CHPSOP 2," this issue.