Amador County News

Saskatchewan has abundance of possibilities for energy
By Laura Keil, Saskatchewan News Network; Canwest News Service
June 22, 2009

For Hank Petranik, the question of wind power comes down to the chicken and the egg.

Despite Saskatchewan having the best quality wind in the country, wind producers are still facing a block when it comes to transmitting that power to companies, says Petranik, vice-president of natural gas and power transmission for TransCanada Corp.

He spoke Saturday at the Delta Bessborough to members of The Energy Council -- a group of North American legislators focused on energy and environment related policy -- who had come from some of the 11 member states and five member provinces to talk about energy in North America.

Petranik says developers are looking for a way to capitalize on the demand for renewable energy by producing wind in a place where wind quality is better. But to get the energy to where people actually live requires building transmission lines.

"Wind will never get developed in Saskatchewan to any great extent unless there is a major transmission system connecting outside the province," he said.

By 2020, Petranik says, Canada will have to replace 11,500 megawatts of old generation power, in addition to providing 30,000 new megawatts.

TransCanada hopes to build a $3-billion, 1,000-kilometre transmission line linking Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. The benefits to Saskatchewan would include access to markets in the U.S., as both Manitoba and Alberta are hooked up to their neighbours to the south.

"If there's a problem in Saskatchewan, they can't phone up Alberta and say 'Can you shift some more power over?' " Petranik said.

As well, if Saskatchewan were to build a nuclear plant, new transmission lines would need to be built in order to sell the excess power to other provinces and south of the border, Petranik says. While Saskatchewan has an abundance of possibilities for energy, it uses very little, making it ideal to sell as an export.

Right now, without the necessary transmission lines, wind power developers could end up sinking; and without wind developers, transmission lines are useless. Hence the chicken-egg dilemma.

"There's potential for a lot of wind out there, but it just can't get on the system ... You can't just go up on the street and put up a sign that says 'I have power for sale,' '' Petranik said.

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