Contribute to the Future Supply Plan

Thanks for your question! SaskPower’s current power mix includes 83 megawatts (MW) of solar power – about 2 per cent of our total generating capacity. Right now, we’re in the competitive process to build 200 MW of solar power. That’s on top of a competition that recently closed for a 100-MW solar facility near Estevan, which will be the largest solar facility in Saskatchewan to date. On top of this nearly 400 MW of solar generation, we are nearly complete building a utility-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) in Regina. The system will be capable of powering 20 MW of load for up to 1 hour. The system will help us balance the power system when demand spikes for short periods of time. The battery system will be the first of its kind in Saskatchewan. It will help us gain experience operating and maintaining battery storage and help us understand its benefits to the overall power system. Battery storage has more flexibility and can respond quicker to short-term power fluctuations than some of the conventional generating units that are currently on the system. However, we cannot rely on this technology alone to power the province as it does not act as 24/7 baseload power. Despite Saskatchewan’s tremendous solar potential, the profile for solar doesn’t align with how Saskatchewan customers use electricity. Unlike most American utilities and many in Canada, Saskatchewan is a winter peaking utility. That means that demand for electricity is greatest in the winter between 6 - 9 p.m., when the sun is not shining.

Thanks for your question! SaskPower is aware of Eavor Technologies and the closed-loop geothermal extraction system. This is very similar to Deep Earth Energy Production (DEEP) located in south-east Saskatchewan for which SaskPower has signed a five-megawatt (MW) power purchase agreement. If this project proceeds, it will be the first geothermal power facility in Canada. Geothermal energy production is one of the technologies that SaskPower is interested in as the technology becomes more mature and potentially becomes commercially operational. When it comes to procuring power, SaskPower typically issues a Request for Proposals for a certain number of MW in a specified region of the province with certain technologies. This may be our approach as geothermal power generation technology develops and costs reduce. However, we do accept Unsolicited Power Proposals, so if a company wishes to submit a proposal for SaskPower to consider, they’re most welcome to do so.

Thanks for your question. Please find below our response to the five policy changes recommended by the Saskatchewan Environmental Society.

• Retirement of conventional coal.
  • All conventional coal in SaskPower’s fleet will be retired by 2030 as is required by law.
• Increase of purchase of hydro power from Manitoba.
  • Manitoba Hydro has said that beyond our existing Power Purchase Agreements they have no additional power to sell to Saskatchewan. They also have no plans to build new hydro facilities. 
  • Please see Manitoba Hydro’s recently released Integrated Resource Plan for more information on their future plans. 
• Building of new natural gas plants.
  • Natural gas generation is currently the only baseload power supply that we can continue to build at the scale required to replace retiring generation and meet load growth. We need to use natural gas as a bridge until new baseload power options are available for deployment in Saskatchewan. 
  • Natural gas generation produces less than half the GHG emissions than conventional coal. We’re also evaluating the possibility of adding carbon capture and storage to new and existing natural gas facilities. 
  • Having natural gas in our power mix is required to enable additional renewables further reducing GHG emissions. That’s because power must be used in real time and natural gas generation is very fast acting, so on the days when wind is high, we won’t run natural gas plants as much. But when it’s not windy or sunny, natural gas generation can quickly take its place.
• Increase solar capacity.
  • SaskPower is committed to achieving a net-zero greenhouse gas emissions power system by 2050 or earlier. To help get there, we plan to add up to 3,000 MW of wind and solar generation by 2035. Right now, we’re in the competitive process to build 400 MW of wind and 200 MW of solar power. 
  • That’s on top of a competition that recently closed for a 100-MW solar facility near Estevan, which will be the largest solar facility in Saskatchewan to date.
  • Additional solar facilities will be announced in the coming months and years. 
• Return to the old net metering program. 
  • Net metering is designed for customers to offset their own power use. When a net metering customer does that, they avoid buying power from SaskPower at the full retail rate. However, if they don’t use that solar power in real-time, it’s injected onto the SaskPower grid. In most cases, that’s during the day when the demand for power is low. That means it’s when SaskPower has lots of power available and not many customers who need power. The usefulness of that electricity to SaskPower at that time is very low. 
  • Very little (4¢) of the 14¢/kWh that SaskPower charges for electricity is to cover the actual electricity used. Most of the amount (10¢) is used to cover fixed costs for system maintenance, electricity demand, and distribution and transmission assets. When net metering customers are compensated at the retail rate, they are being compensated for services they don’t actually provide. Net metering customers rely on the SaskPower grid just as much as any non-net metering customers. This means that SaskPower still provides all the same services and must collect the same total amount to cover its fixed costs, leaving non-net metering customers to pay a larger portion. The Basic Monthly Charge covers administrative costs associated with billing and meter reading – it does not cover fixed infrastructure costs. 
  • Despite Saskatchewan’s tremendous solar potential, the profile for solar doesn’t align with how Saskatchewan customers use electricity. Unlike most American utilities and many in Canada, Saskatchewan is a winter peaking utility. That means that demand for electricity is greatest in the winter. SaskPower must serve that demand in real time. In winter, between 6-9 p.m., the sun has set, and customers aren’t able to rely on any solar generating systems for power. For net metering customers (and everyone else), that means relying on other sources of power generation like natural gas or coal. Additionally, achieving our GHG emissions targets doesn’t depend on net metering because there are more cost-effective and efficient technologies to reduce emissions – such as utility-scale renewables.
  • Since the net metering program changed in 2019, we’ve seen a doubling in applications per year. We had 431 new net metering applicants last fiscal year, and we’re on track to exceed that number this fiscal year.

Thanks for your question and sharing your thoughts on the project. Access to water is a key consideration for siting an SMR. To help ensure we select the best location, we completed water intake and availability studies in each of the two study regions. Both the Rafferty and Boundary Dam reservoirs, and Lake Diefenbaker have been evaluated as suitable for the project. As a rule of thumb, nuclear power requires about 15 per cent more cooling water than coal fired power plants. Morrison Dam which provides the reservoir for our Poplar River Power Plant in Coronach has struggled at times to keep up with demand for that 600 MW plant, which makes a nuclear power plant about the same size unfeasible. There’s no specific minimum depth or volume of water required because there are options for how we interact with the cooling water source. Ideally, we’re looking for a site with the most flexibility when it comes to water availability.

Thanks for your question. In terms of power reliability, one possible benefit is an improved level of service. This is because upgrades will need to be made to the local distribution system to support construction of the facility. In terms of water use, there is potential to design the cooling water system collaboratively with other partners in the area. This could include irrigation projects. 

Reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions from the power grid is going to require significant financial investment. No matter which generation options we use going forward, power rates will increase. Currently, wind and solar are the two cheapest generating options available in Saskatchewan. But it’s important to note that wind and solar are non-dispatchable or intermittent power supply options. Given this intermittency of renewable generation, currently about 80 per cent of the energy consumed in Saskatchewan comes from reliable baseload sources that can provide power 24/7. Today, most of our baseload sources emit greenhouse gases (GHGs). Until emerging low- and non-emitting baseload (or dispatchable) generation options -- such as long-duration energy storage, carbon capture and storage on natural gas, and nuclear small modular reactors -- are commercially available in Saskatchewan, natural gas generation will continue to be critical to ensuring reliability for our customers.

Hi there! Thanks for your interest in participating in the Shared Renewables focus groups. We’re sorry you’re not able to make it to this discussion. We will be covering this topic at our Power Talks session -- Customer Renewable Programs: Alternatives to Self-Generation on Oct. 12 from 12 – 1 p.m. Please register at saskpower.com/powertalks to attend. We’re also planning more engagement activities to talk about the future of customer self-generation in the coming months.

In the meantime, we’re about to begin Stage 3 of our Future Supply Plan – 2030 and Beyond engagement project and we’ve been working hard to be as inclusive as we can during this project. Stage 1 ran from September to November 2022. Stage 2 ran from December to April 2023. As we head into the fall, you’ll see more chances for engagement coming up in October, November, and December 2023. 

Stage 3 will include:

• Online deep-dive engagement sessions
• In-person workshops in five Saskatchewan cities
• Virtual learning events (Power Talks series)
• Surveys, quick polls, and more!

We’ll share new engagement opportunities here on saskpower.com/engage and through our Future Supply newsletter. Sign up at saskpower.com/newsletters.

Electric vehicles are an interesting emerging technology that we’re certainly keeping our eye on. As more electric vehicles are purchased by our customers, it presents opportunities for SaskPower to serve an increasing load as customer demand for electricity grows and to potentially take advantage of the energy storage capability of the batteries in these electric vehicles. To capitalize on these and other opportunities, we are transforming our distribution system to enhance our ability to manage our power grid in the future.

Thanks for your question! Potentia Renewables is the independent power producer that owns and manages the wind facility south of Assiniboia. We have a power purchase agreement (PPA) with them to buy the power the wind facility generates. Due to the competitive nature of PPAs we aren’t able to disclose the exact cost we pay Potentia per megawatt hour ($/MWh). However, during the competitive request for proposals phase, SaskPower reviewed 29 proposals from 15 pre-qualified proponents. The average price of all 29 bids was $42/MWh, including the cost of connecting the facility to the power grid. The winning bid provided by Potentia came in well below that.

The expected lifespan for photovoltaics is 20-35 years, and for concentrated solar power is 30 years. We’re currently building our first battery energy storage system and we expect its lifespan will be about 20 years. Solar panels may reflect some of the sun’s rays, but anti-reflection coatings can mitigate this while also increasing a solar panel’s efficiency. Solar power is an important component of Saskatchewan’s future energy mix.