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Originally Posted by trew
I understand that the transmission of the power may not end up in the Calgary market, and I can get my head around the power pool and grid concepts.
What I still don't understand, though, is if there is a direct corolation between consumer investment in greenmax and an increase of windpower provided to the powerpool. I know they added 12 windmills to offset the C-train usage, would GreenMax have the same impact, ie/ would they eventually add another 20 mills if 6000 more poeple signed up for GreenMax?
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You would have to ask Enmax that. I'm sure it would be in their business plan somewhere, although I don't know if the joe public would be privy to that info.
I'm not sure if Enmax actually added 12 turbines to cover the c-train requirements......moreso what they did was sign a guaranteed contract (with the company developing the site) saying they would pay market price, at a minimum of 7 cents, over a set amount of years to help cover capital costs or to allow the producer to qualify for financing. In the case of Enmax their deal was with Visionquest, who they just hppened to own. It's pretty easy to sign contracts with yourself......
So yes, indirectly the C-train contract is responsible for the turbines. What they do however, is have other large generation sites that supply power, and allow the wind turbines to bid into the grid at a much higher profit level than the contract is for, when both generators (say coal and wind) are running.
We have been working on a wind-gen site for 4 years now, and the semantics are extremely complicated. Large retailers have the upper hand on us small guys for a number of reasons, and one of them is the generation capacity they already have, and the marketing budgets they can utilize. The average Calgarian seems to think they are subsidizing green power by getting into Greenmax, when in reality it's the same as saying we're subsidizing federal road building in Alberta by paying federal income tax. Indirectly yes, it contributes. Directly, I would say you're better off buying stock in Canadian Hydro or Visionquest wit the money you would spend on a subsidy for Enmax. Even though Visionquest is owned by Enmax, at least you know you're directly subsidizing wind generation.
edit for clarity, although I've had 2 pints and still make no sense