POPULARITY
7 episodes with Hydroelectricity
2 episodes with Hydroelectricity
2 episodes with Hydroelectricity
2 episodes with Hydroelectricity
2 episodes with Hydroelectricity
2 episodes with Hydroelectricity
Hydroelectricity is the world's biggest source of renewable energy, and dams have long been a popular - if controversial - way to fast-track development and boost economies. Jordan Dunbar is in Thailand, a country that has been transformed by hydropower. He meets Thais who've been helped by dams, and those they've hurt. And he finds out how a warming world could put the future of hydropower in jeopardy. Presenter: Jordan Dunbar Producer: Ellie House Assistant Producer in Thailand: Maew Wilawan Watcharasakwej Sound design: Tom Brignell Production Coordinator: Brenda Brown Editor: Simon WattsIf you have a question, email us at theclimatequestion@bbc.com or leave a WhatsApp message at + 44 8000 321 721
Hydroelectric power harnesses the energy of water to generate electricity, but how? From turbine design to dynamos, we look at the components that make hydropower work. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
About 50 percent of energy generated in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States comes from hydroelectric power. According to Rick Dunn, general manager of Benton PUD, that puts the region in an unbelievably unique position. In this episode, host Dave Whitehead talks with Rick about the impact hydro has on reliability and rates, the politicization of the resource, and why he became an author.
Host: Teresa Nees Guest: Jackie Fisher
Despite frequent pronouncements that the world should stop using coal, it still consumes vast amounts of black rocks. According to the Energy Institute's Statistical Review of World Energy, coal's global primary energy consumption was about 15% above natural gas in 2022 and only 15% lower than crude oil. Coal consumption has yet to decline. Instead, coal use has plateaued for the better part of the last decade. Because of its carbon intensity and large consumption, Peter and Jackie describe coal as the “herd of elephants” in the room for meeting aggressive decarbonization and climate goals under the 2015 Paris Agreement. This week, our guest is Lara Dong, Senior Director, Global Coal Research, S&P Global Commodity Insights. Lara explains why coal demand has been resilient and what to expect in the future. Here are some of the questions Peter and Jackie ask Lara: Is coal consumption expected to stay strong? Why is China still building new coal power plants? How does this compare to clean electricity additions in China, including wind, solar, and hydro? Is there still ongoing new investment in coal mines to add supply? Why was 2021 a pivotal year for Chinese energy policy? How did the 2022 energy crisis impact China's and India's energy policy for coal? Do you think the IEA Net Zero scenario, which assumes a 90% drop in coal consumption by 2050, is likely? If Canada were to increase its LNG exports to Asia, would this decrease coal consumption (and greenhouse gas emissions) in the region? Please review our disclaimer at: https://www.arcenergyinstitute.com/disclaimer/ Check us out on social media: X (Twitter): @arcenergyinst LinkedIn: @ARC Energy Research Institute Subscribe to ARC Energy Ideas Podcast Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Amazon Music Spotify
This week, our guest is Roger Dall'Antonia, President and CEO of FortisBC. FortisBC is a leading energy provider in British Columbia (BC), Canada. The utility serves about 1.1 million natural gas customers and 185,000 electricity customers. Roger explains the benefits of using natural gas to meet the peak winter heating demand and the challenges of using electricity to do the same. Because of the unique ability of gaseous fuels to flex up and meet demand, even on the coldest days, Roger sees a long-term future for gas. He explains how natural gas can become cleaner over time through a broad set of measures, such as increasing the amount of renewable natural gas (RNG) and clean hydrogen and efficiency measures that use less natural gas. Here are some of the questions that Peter and Jackie asked Roger: What is the outlook for the supply and demand of electricity in BC? How will Site C hydroelectric demand change the market? Is BC too reliant on hydro, considering concerns around drought? Why has BC recently decided to launch a call for renewable power from large-scale wind and solar farms? What is RNG and how much potential supply is there? How are you involving Indigenous partners in your projects? What are your thoughts on the Clean Electricity Regulations targeting net zero electricity by 2035? Considering Atlantic Canada's exception from the retail carbon tax for heating oil, could this be the beginning of the end for the retail carbon tax in Canada? Other content referenced in this podcast: Other content referenced in this podcast: The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP)'s Data Centre FortisBC's Clean Growth Pathway to 2050 BC Renewable and Low-Carbon Gas Supply Potential Study Pathways for British Columbia to Achieve its GHG Reduction Goals Please review our disclaimer at: https://www.arcenergyinstitute.com/disclaimer/ Check us out on social media: X (Twitter): @arcenergyinst LinkedIn: @ARC Energy Research Institute Subscribe to ARC Energy Ideas Podcast Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Amazon Music Spotify
A Climate Change Exhibit Asks ‘What If We Get It Right?'Dr. Ayanna Elizabeth Johnson, a marine biologist and co-founder of the nonprofit Urban Ocean Lab, thinks a lot about the possible futures of our climate. Not just one ideal climate future, but a range of futures that could be better if we make some changes.She's helped steer environmental policy, written books and articles on climate action, and co-hosted the podcast How To Save A Planet. And now she's working with artists who are offering their own creative visions for how we could build a more sustainable society.The effort has culminated in Climate Futurism, a new exhibit Dr. Johnson curated at Pioneer Works, a museum and performing arts space in Brooklyn, New York. And one of the central questions it asks the viewer is, what if we get it right?SciFri producer D. Peterschmidt visited the exhibit and spoke to Dr. Johnson and one of the three featured artists, Erica Deeman, about food justice, reconnecting with nature, and why the exhibit is called Climate Futurism.Climate Futurism features new art from Erica Deeman, Denice Frohman, and Olalekan Jeyifous. It runs until December 10, 2023.How To Save Oregon's Salmon? Maybe With A Giant Vacuum.To free salmon stuck behind dams in Oregon's Willamette River Valley, here's what the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has in mind:Build a floating vacuum the size of a football field with enough pumps to suck up a small river. Capture tiny young salmon in the vacuum's mouth and flush them into massive storage tanks. Then load the fish onto trucks, drive them downstream and dump them back into the water. An enormous fish collector like this costs up to $450 million, and nothing of its scale has ever been tested.The fish collectors are the biggest element of the Army Corps' $1.9 billion plan to keep the salmon from going extinct.The Corps says its devices will work. A cheaper alternative — halting dam operations so fish can pass — would create widespread harm to hydroelectric customers, boaters and farmers, the agency contends.“Bottom line, we think what we have proposed will support sustainable, healthy fish populations over time,” Liza Wells, the deputy engineer for the Corps' Portland district, said in a statement.But reporting by Oregon Public Broadcasting and ProPublica casts doubt on the Corps' assertions.Read more on sciencefriday.com.To stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters. Transcripts for each segment will be available the week after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.
Cooking and eating our own herring, speeding hotspots and fines, mail plane ends today, Manx hydroelectricity, Douglas memorial plaque charges & congratulations to Conister Bank. It's Mannin Line with Andy Wint #iom #manninline #manxradio
Virgin Galactic says it will launch its latest mission from the Spaceport on May 25. We wish them the best. MLG recently spoke to Politico on energy. She made numerous factually incorrect statements. Paul fact-checks her comments and wonders why she'd say so many obviously wrong things. MLG ALSO claimed AR-15's are "automatic weapons" which is not in fact true. A California city that has banned gas stoves has exempted a celebrity chef and his new restaurant from the ban. UNM's budget explodes thanks in part to "free college." This is on top of an already big higher education infrastructure. MLG's alcohol tax vetoes anger the left (and they're not entirely wrong). California's wet winter/spring could save the west from blackouts and brownouts. As the battle continues to wage in Washington over raising the debt ceiling Democrats have claimed that Trump's tax cuts are causing the budget shortfall. The reality is federal revenues rose after Trump's tax cuts. Local advocates argue that “free” buses are working for the City. Based on what?
Johnny Bray is the powerhouse manager at Eufaula Dam. He oversees the maintenance of the structure and hydropower facilities to ensure the powerhouse can reliably produce its 90 Megawatts of Electricity when needed. He recently received the De Fleury Medal, the highest honor a USACE civilian can receive, in honor of 40 years of service to the nation. Bray began his career at the Webbers Falls Powerhouse in December 1982 and served at Denison Dam on Lake Texoma and eventually returned to the Lake Eufaula powerhouse only a few miles from where he grew up. At the end of calendar year Bray will leave the powerhouse for the last time as a USACE employee. We spoke with him about his career and upcoming retirement.
This week, co-hosts Steve Paikin and John Michael McGrath discuss news that Ontario could be walking away from an energy deal with Hydro Quebec. They also expand on why a doctor-turned-Liberal-MPP calls the crisis in our hospitals "historic." Also, for our third week of municipal elections programming, Cheryll Case of CP Planning and Alex Hemingway of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives discuss what city halls can do to help us afford housing.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The USA is a Republic, yet the Left finds a unique way to slightly alter language. Hydroelectricity is NOT considered renewable. Thank God for Maxine Waters. Getting the older Democrat to your side. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The USA is a Republic, yet the Left finds a unique way to slightly alter language. Hydroelectricity is NOT considered renewable. Thank God for Maxine Waters. Getting the older Democrat to your side. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In this episode of Boom! It's on the Blockchain Alastair Caithness discusses 1) the difference between #nft and #nfst (Non Fungible Security Token) #nonfungiblesecuritytoken 2) new forms of #bitcoinmining utilizing #hydroelectricity 3) Deep dive about #tokenization of #oil and #energy assets utilizing #securitytokens 4) Energy Tokens with built in #carbon tracking software 5) Chewing the cud discussing #charliemunger and #warrenbuffett talking about the evil of #bitcoin but it's ok to invest in building #nuclearweapons Visit http://www.energytokens.io for daily news updates on #cryptocurrency #blockchain #bitcoin #nfts and #energy Subscribe to - Boom! It's on the Blockchain on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/boomitsontheblockchain Subscribe to - Boom! It's on the Blockchain on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0u1FjgiwipudqWcFlBfZp3 Subscribe to - Boom! It's on the Blockchain on Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/boom-its-on-the-blockchain/id1480310918 Follow Alastair Caithness - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alastaircaithness/ Bitcoin Libertarian NFTs are available on OpenSea - https://opensea.io/collection/bitcoin-libertarian Visit http://www.ziyen.com for more information about Ziyen Energy
Welcome to the Oil and Gas Onshore podcast — brought to you by TechnipFMC on the Oil and Gas Global Network, the largest and most listened-to podcast network for the oil and energy industry. In this episode our host Justin Gauthier talks with Mark Rossano, founder of C6 Capital to discuss his passion for geopolitics and all things energy markets. Mark also discusses his love for being a home body and embracing time spent with his family on movie nights. We'd like to highlight some fascinating technology provided by our sponsor, TechnipFMC. Their new and integrated iComplete™ ecosystem is digitally enabled and delivers efficiency benefits by dramatically reducing components and connections while simultaneously providing real-time data to operators about the #wellpad operations. TechnipFMC is continuing to push the limits in order to achieve full frac automation. To discover more about all the benefits of iComplete™ click the link in the show notes or check them out on linkedin: https://lnkd.in/eeSVvcc TechnipFMC Giveaway https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/pcEvkKz/OGGN Ogio Dome duffle bag Yeti 20 oz purple tumbler Executive power bank Columbia neck gator AcePods 2.0 – True Wireless Stereo (TWS) Bluetooth Ear Buds More from OGGN … Podcasts LinkedIn Group LinkedIn Company Page Get notified about industry events
Welcome to the Oil and Gas Onshore podcast — brought to you by TechnipFMC on the Oil and Gas Global Network, the largest and most listened-to podcast network for the oil and energy industry. In this episode our host Justin Gauthier talks with Mark Rossano, founder of C6 Capital to discuss his passion for geopolitics and all things energy markets. Mark also discusses his love for being a home body and embracing time spent with his family on movie nights. We'd like to highlight some fascinating technology provided by our sponsor, TechnipFMC. Their new and integrated iComplete™ ecosystem is digitally enabled and delivers efficiency benefits by dramatically reducing components and connections while simultaneously providing real-time data to operators about the #wellpad operations. TechnipFMC is continuing to push the limits in order to achieve full frac automation. To discover more about all the benefits of iComplete™ click the link in the show notes or check them out on linkedin: https://lnkd.in/eeSVvcc TechnipFMC Giveaway https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/pcEvkKz/OGGN Ogio Dome duffle bag Yeti 20 oz purple tumbler Executive power bank Columbia neck gator AcePods 2.0 - True Wireless Stereo (TWS) Bluetooth Ear Buds More from OGGN ... Podcasts LinkedIn Group LinkedIn Company Page Get notified about industry events
Hydroelectric power is one of the older and more proven forms of renewable energy, so it doesn't get the same attention as new and exciting technologies. Even so, there's plenty of innovation going on in the hydro space, both in new technology and upgrading older facilities.Gia Schneider, CEO of Natel Energy, is the perfect guest to talk about what's going on in hydro, so we brought her onto the latest episode of the Siemens Energy Podcast. Gia has had extensive experience with renewables, not just from the investing and financing side, but also from a personal interest side: she cares about climate and the environment and wants to help drive positive change through her work in hydro.Host Amy Pempel begins the conversation by asking about the origins of Natel Energy and how it's developed from its earliest days to where it is now.Amy and Gia also discuss:The 90,000 US dams that currently produce no power and why they present a great opportunity The meaning of river “connectivity” and why that's integral to the design of new turbines at NatelThe work that needs to be done at existing hydro facilities to bring them up to modern standardsYou'll also have a chance to hear Gia discuss cybersecurity and natural disasters, two vectors that can directly impact hydropower's effectiveness, and what can be done to mitigate these vectors.If you enjoy today's show, please leave a 5-star review. For more information and links to all the resources mentioned in today's episode, visit Siemens-Energy.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Mike and Sarah discuss his recent road trip themed series that takes readers up to Harriman Station in Windham County, VT (through Monroe, MA). They also discuss progress in relicensing negotiations for First Light hydroelectricity production. Read the paper online: https://montaguereporter.org/read/ Subscribe to the paper: https://montaguereporter.org/subscribe/ You can reach the podcast via email at: podcast@montaguereporter.org
This week, we have a special holiday episode of the ThinkEnergy podcast. Inspired by one of our favourite Christmas movies, A Christmas Carol, we're here to present some podcast “ghosts” of past, present and future. Get ready to buckle up because we're going on an adventure to recap three of our top episodes from 2021. Related Content & Links: Second Harvest - https://secondharvest.ca --- Transcript: Dan Seguin 00:53 Ho, ho, ho, everyone. Welcome back. This is the ThinkEnergy podcast and I'm Dan Seguin. Rebecca Schwartz 01:00 And I'm Rebecca Schwartz. Dan Seguin 01:02 This week, we have a very special holiday episode of The ThinkEnergy podcast, inspired by one of my favorite Christmas movies, A Christmas Carol. We're here to present some podcast ghosts of the past, the present, and future. Rebecca Schwartz 01:23 Ooh, podcast ghost - sounds spooky. Should we be worried? What do you have in store for us, Dan? Dan Seguin 01:30 That just building some suspense for you. But get ready to buckle up? Because we're going on an adventure to recap three of the top episodes from this year. Rebecca Schwartz 01:42 I'm ready. Dan, where should we start? Dan Seguin 01:44 Let's start with the Ghost of Christmas Past. In the movie, the ghost represents memory. So let's take a trip down memory lane to our episode on how Ontario used to burn coal as an energy source: A reminder of how far we've come in the energy industry to clean up our energy supply mix. Back in 2003 25% of electricity in Ontario came from coal plants. Did you know cold emissions were a major source of air pollution that contributed to 53 smog days in Ontario alone in 2005. That same year, my great City of Ottawa had 25. For those that may not know smog days would be declared in the province on days when the air wasn't as safe to breathe. Due to the amount of toxins in the air in 2014. Ontario was the first jurisdiction in North America to completely eliminate coal as a source of electricity production. According to air quality, Ontario, the province phased out of coal has been considered to have achieved the most significant results of any climate change initiative in North America to date. Now, today 94% of electricity generated in Ontario is emission free, and those smog advisories are all but a thing of the past. There's no doubt that Ontario has been a leader in fighting climate change and investing in cleaner energy sources. By 2030. Canada will phase out traditional coal fired electricity in the country altogether, striving to have 90% of electricity from non emitting sources, and simultaneously cutting carbon pollution from the electricity sector by 12 point 8 million tons. Rebecca Schwartz 03:48 This is a great reminder. What did our guest or should I say ghost have to say about this transition away from coal in this episode? Dan Seguin 03:56 I'm glad you asked Rebecca. Here's what Gideon Foreman had to say: Gideon Forman 04:02 In terms of the impacts. The biggest impact that we talked about now is the climate impact. The coal plants at their height were the equivalent of millions of cars on our roads. When we took the coal plants out it was like removing 6 million cars from Ontario's roads. So they were a very, very significant source of greenhouse gases. And they also produced other things that were toxic things like mercury, for example, and arsenic. So they were also a significant source of human health problems. They made asthma worse, what they call the particulate matter in smog. Some of that came from coal plants and particulate matter is a factor in lung cancer. So a number of different ailments were connected to the coal plants. Dan Seguin 04:47 And here's what he said about the case for eliminating coal fired electricity in Ontario. Gideon Forman 04:53 The Case for closing the coal plants was that they were just a massive, massive source of greenhouse gas emissions and other contributors to pollution, things like nitrous oxides and sulfur oxide, sulfur dioxide. So they were contributing to climate change, they were contributing to acid rain, and they were contributing to human illness on a very big scale. And the other reason that it made sense to close them was it was something doable. In Ontario, because they were publicly owned, there was an opportunity to do it in quite a rapid and efficient manner. You know, in many places, coal plants are privately owned, in the United States, for example. And so if they're privately owned, it's very difficult to close them quickly. There's all sorts of issues around compensation and government has to step in. And it can be very complicated legally. But in Ontario, all the coal plants are owned by the government of Ontario. So the government of Ontario could close them basically through the stroke of a pen. And that's what happened, it was over a number of years. But that's what happened, the Ontario government decided that by 2014, they would no longer be coal used to produce electricity in the province. And that's what happened. So it was a matter of something that would have huge impact. And that was doable. That was kind of the thinking behind it. In terms of backlash, there wasn't a lot of backlash. There were some who raised concerns about the transition, loss of jobs for workers in the coal plants. There were some questions about electricity supply. But for the most part, I think there was a lot of public acceptance that we had to get off coal, this was something really good to do from an air quality point of view. And increasingly, from a climate change point of view. In terms of who drove the coal phase out, a lot of it was pushed by health professionals, the Ontario Medical Association, doctors, including some of the doctors that I work with, in physicians for the environment, nurses, Ontario, public health officials, medical officers of health, these sorts of people and family physicians, these sorts of people saw firsthand the effect of smog of bad air on people's lives. And they talked openly about it. And so was very much driven, I think, by the health professionals. I remember one time, Dan, when I was working with the physicians for environment, we we arranged a meeting to meet with the Minister of Environment for the province of Ontario and I brought in doctors I brought in nurses and we had an opportunity to talk across the table with the minister. And it was just fascinating for the Minister to see firsthand the effect of coal on people's lives in a very direct way. I remember one of our doctors from Kingston. She said, you know, Minister, there are times when the weather when the air quality is so poor, that my patients can't go outside, and I really worry for them. And if you close the coal plants, this would make a huge difference in the lives of my patients. And you could see the minister really connecting with that at a very human level. So it wasn't just an abstraction for our doctors. And so I think that was one of the driving forces behind the coal plant phase out. Rebecca Schwartz 08:03 Boy, am I ever glad that smog warnings are now vague and distant memory. I'm so grateful for everyone who stood up for eliminating coal. It makes me excited for how much more we can do for a cleaner energy. Dan Seguin 08:16 Now, are you ready for us to dive into the next one? This time, I have a podcast ghosts of Christmas present for you. Now this ghost represents generosity and goodwill. So the episode we'll be revisiting is The Birds and the Bees about Pollinator Meadows, where we chat about a sustainable approach to building out electrical infrastructure, one that supports the vegetation and wildlife. Did you know that across North America, the populations of Monarch butterflies, bees and other pollinators are in a steep decline due to herbicides, pesticides, climate change, and a reduction in natural pollinator habitats. pollinators are responsible for a third of the world's food supply, so they are extremely vital to our existence in Canada. There are more than 1000 species of pollinating animals that are responsible for billions of dollars worth of Canadian farm produce flowers, and ecosystems that rely on pollination. In short, without pollinators, food supply would suffer drastically. It may seem like an unlikely Union, but utilities like hydro Ottawa are ideally suited to restore these environments, thanks to a number of utility corridors and properties in their service territories, not to mention the kilometers of power lines and right aways along roadsides. Moreover, vegetation along utility corridors are compatible with these types of vegetation necessary to support pollinators. In 2019, hydro Ottawa began civil construction of its largest ever municipal transformer station in the south end of Ottawa, situated on 24 acres of land since the new transformer station requires only five acres of property, hydro Ottawa partnered with the city of Ottawa Rito Valley Conservation Authority and the Canadian Wildlife Federation to create one of the largest pollinator meadows of its kind in Eastern Ontario, adjacent to this future station. The agreement means that 15 acres will be dedicated to a pollinator meadow, which is scheduled for seeding. In the spring of 2021, a four acre tree reforestation area was reforested in 2020, with 2750 trees, thanks to the Rita River Conservation Authority. Tracy Etwell, a restoration ecologist with the Canadian Wildlife Federation, and Megan McDonald, Lake planning and shoreline stewardship coordinator for the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority. Join me for this episode to share what goes into a successful pollinator meadow and how we can as an industry, and as ordinary citizens generously help the movement by building more pollinator Meadows. Tracy Etwell 11:39 Utilities are a key player in our pollinator restoration efforts as they maintain over 160,000 kilometers of transmission lines 1000s of generation stations across Canada, which has huge potential for pollinator habitat restoration, also their linear design are relatively easy for pollinators to find. Since utilities need to control the woody species over the long term along these facilities. It provides a great place for the wildflowers and grasses to grow. And it provides a great opportunity for utilities to demonstrate environmental leadership and provide the habitat. That's that's a win win for the utilities and the pollinators. So the Canadian Wildlife Federation is committed to supporting pollinators for both our diverse biodiversity and our food supply. As you mentioned, many of the nutritious plants eat such as fruits and vegetables rely on insect pollination, and 90% of the world's flowering plants rely on insect pollination. So it's critical that as a global society, we support these insect pollinators. Now our project is focused on a variety of support such as technical expertise in building these meadows, increasing the native seed supply in Ontario, and providing case studies of the costs and benefits of restoring meadow habitat. We work with interested managers to develop their respective projects. And we've also only recently formed the Canadian branch of rights of way within the US rights of way habitat working group to enhance our network so that we have more access to resources, case studies and best practices. Rebecca Schwartz 13:04 I love that utilities are working together with ecologists and stewardship coordinators to think outside the box and to discover new approaches that are environmentally sustainable. Birds and bees, while they may be small creatures, make our world a better place in so many ways. And I'm so glad that we're looking out for them. Thanks for another great recap, Dan. Tell us where are you leaving us for the podcast Ghost of Christmas Future. Dan Seguin 13:31 So in the movie, The Ghost of Christmas Future represents something pretty grim. The fear of death. Rebecca Schwartz 13:39 I forgot about that. I'm not sure I'm prepared for this now. Dan Seguin 13:43 Nah, don't worry. The closest we've come to that theme on our podcast is probably our crisis communications episode. But I'd like to take a more uplifting approach and share the final recap that looks to the future through a positive lens. For this reason, my next and last podcast Ghost of Christmas Future is unlocking a sustainable energy future with today's youth. Much like the podcast Ghost of Christmas Present., we celebrate environmental stewardship in this episode, but also the exciting possibilities for upcoming generations to unlock. Rebecca Schwartz 14:24 Ah, now we're talking let's go. Dan Seguin 14:27 With every new generation that comes of age, there's a fresh perspective introduced to the table. Young people offer incredible opportunities for change with their new ideas and verve. However, part of the challenge for young people around the world is finding a platform from which their voice can be heard and valued. Without well established networks and resources. Young people can easily be stifled or forgotten. Thankfully, when it comes to the energy sector, climate change, and what's in store for the future, an organization by the name of student energy seeks to bridge that gap. Student energy is a global youth led non for profit organization that strives to empower young people to accelerate their sustainable energy transition. They connect young people to global changemakers and provide them access to decision making spaces, so that they have opportunities to play a part in their energy future. They started with three driven students who, in 2009, is set out to organize the first international student energy summit. Since then, it has expanded into a global organization, with programs engaging over 50,000 students from over 120 countries, alumni are going on to develop and implement renewable energy technologies, advise the United Nations and advocate for a clean energy future while working with some of the largest energy companies. In this episode Shakti Ramkumar, Director of Communications and policy for student energy shares about how the energy industry utilities, and we, as individuals can support youth in establishing a sustainable energy future. Shakti Ramkumar 16:34 I think there are two main things that we've recognized are distinct about young people's values when it comes to the energy transition that kind of makes this era of the environment and climate movement a little bit different than the previous era. One is the timeline in which young people expect action. We're seeing commitments now, finally, from companies and governments about aiming for net zero emissions by 2050. And young people who are climate activists are saying, Okay, that's good, but we need to see action right now. And that's why our Global Youth Energy Outlook actually works on a timeline leading up to 2030, not 2050, as we will have to take drastic climate action by then if we want to act in accordance with climate science. So as the years pass, and our global climate commitments are still not strong enough to meet the 1.5 degree target that we've set as a collective, the sense of urgency among young people, I think, is something that is really distinct. The second big value that we've seen from young people is that we're not siloed in our thinking, and that young people won't consider it a success, if we successfully decarbonize our energy system, are the harms that the current energy system has inflicted on people and communities, and haven't made sure that the benefits of the Clean Energy Transition are equitably distributed. So an emphasis on seeing energy as a mechanism through which we can build a more just and equitable society is something that is a really strong value for young people that I think it's something new, to the energy transition. And on the question of what can older generations do at student energy, we really value intergenerational collaboration, we have a lot to learn from people who have set up the energy system as it is now about the complexities and the nuances of producing distributing supplying energy. So we really value intergenerational collaboration. And there's three main things that I think older generations can do, particularly those with resources or power to make decisions. One very simple invest in young people that can look like financially supporting youth led organizations, youth led projects, or investing time through mentorship and guidance to is understand the value of youth, a lot of organizations, we want them to really think, are we meaningfully engaging with young people? What can we do to meaningfully and equitably engage with young people, not just on a tokenistic basis, but on a really kind of equal relationship. And this is something student energy often works with organizations to help them figure out especially if they're navigating youth engagement for the very first time. And the third thing, I would say is to create space for young people, older generations who have access to a large platform or an influential position. Think actively about how you can make young space for young people using that privilege. Whether this looks like asking an event organizer, why there are no young people on the panel and recommending some young people showing that panel, whether it looks like bringing up in a meeting, why we're not funding youth led organizations, or taking into consideration the youth voice when making that next strategy, that next plan. These are some tangible ways that older generations can really support young people. Dan Seguin 19:48 How's that for inspiration? Feeling empowered Rebecca? Rebecca Schwartz 19:52 Not gonna lie. I definitely feel fired up by all that Shakti had to say there. So how are you going to support me Dan? Fresh, hip, young mind that I am Dan Seguin 20:02 Funny you should say that because I'm about to put you on the hot seat. You know how we always end off with some rapid fire questions? Well today, it's your turn to answer them. So, over to you. Now, Rebecca, what is your favorite word? Rebecca Schwartz 20:23 My favorite word is Pomplamoose...like grapefruit just has a roll off the tongue type of thing. Dan Seguin 20:33 Sure. What is the one thing you can't live without? Rebecca Schwartz 20:37 My cats. Dan Seguin 20:38 Now, what is something that challenges you? Rebecca Schwartz 20:42 waking up in the morning Dan Seguin 20:44 You're not a morning person? Rebecca Schwartz 20:47 It eems not. Dan Seguin 20:49 If you could have one superpower, what would it be? Rebecca Schwartz 20:53 Definitely teleportation. Dan Seguin 20:55 Now this one should be interesting. If you could turn back time and talk to your 18 year old self, what would you tell her? Rebecca Schwartz 21:04 I would tell her to keep saying yes to opportunities and that you'll go way further that way. Dan Seguin 21:10 And lastly, Rebecca, what's on your wish list this holiday season? Rebecca Schwartz 21:15 Okay, so there's a little bit not so much a rapid fire question. But I'm really passionate about food security and reducing waste. So my wish would be that those who can give choose to give this holiday season and a really good place to start is an organization that I'm really fond of. It's called Second Harvest. And they're a Food Rescue charity with a dual mission of providing hunger relief and environmental protection. And they redistribute overstock surplus food across Canada and all provinces and territories. And they feed things like school programs, senior centers, food banks, and the like. So if you have an appetite to donate this holiday season, we'll include a link in our show notes. Dan Seguin 21:57 Very cool. Well, dear listeners, we've reached the end of another episode of The think energy podcast. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you had a lot of fun and happy holidays. Rebecca Schwartz 22:11 Happy holidays Dan, and to you our listeners. I sure hope you enjoyed this episode of The ThinkEnergy podcast. If so please head over to our iTunes SUBSCRIBE And leave us a review. Dan Seguin 22:24 Now For show notes and bonus content visit thinkenergypodcast.ca. Also, be sure to tell your friends and colleagues about us. Rebecca Schwartz 22:33 Thank you for listening
The energy sector, specifically electricity, is evolving at a rapid pace. But some folks may not realize that 94 per cent of Ontario's electricity is generated without producing any greenhouse gas emissions. That's pretty remarkable. So, what can customers expect from their local hydro utility today and in the future? How are they influenced by the government and its regulators? Teresa Sarkesian, the President and CEO of the Electricity Distributors Association, is here with us today to fill us in. Related Content & Links: Teresa Sarkesian's Linkedin profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/teresa-sarkesian-53898613 EDA website: https://www.eda-on.ca/ --- Transcript: Dan Seguin 00:33 Hey, everyone, welcome back. This is the ThinkEnergy podcast. And in today's episode, we'll explore the need for our sector to have a collective voice. I'm Dan Seguin. Rebecca Schwartz 01:03 And I'm Rebecca Schwartz. Dan, I don't know if you knew this, but before starting at Hydro Ottawa, I never really gave electricity much thought it was just kind of something that was always there. I didn't really know before starting here, just how much a local utility company did, how they are really on the frontlines every day keeping our complex electricity grid working and the lights on for all of us. Dan Seguin 01:26 Or probably what a regulated industry is in Ontario, or that utilities don't even make the profit from selling energy. Rebecca Schwartz 01:36 Definitely. And with Hydro Ottawa being a private company, it seems a little counterintuitive. Dan Seguin 01:42 Yeah. Local hydro utilities, also known as local distribution companies distribute power from high voltage transmission lines: those big metal towers you see, to lower voltage hydro poles, so that it can be safe enough for more than 5 million residential, business, industrial and institutional customers across our province. Rebecca Schwartz 02:07 Yep. And that includes the installation and maintenance of power lines, pools, underground cables, metering, implementing electrical vehicle infrastructure, and in some cases, even generating electricity themselves through renewable energy sources. Dan Seguin 02:23 The energy sector specifically electricity is evolving at a rapid pace. But some folks may not realize that 94% of Ontario's electricity is generated without producing any greenhouse gas emissions. That's pretty remarkable. So here's today's big question: What can customers expect from their local hydro utility today? And in the future? How are they influenced by the government and its regulators? Rebecca Schwartz 02:55 Our guest today is Teresa Sarkesian, and the President and CEO of Electricity Distributors Association. Teresa, welcome to the show. Perhaps you could start us off by telling us a little bit about yourself and what the electricity Distributors Association does. Teresa Sarkesian 03:15 Well, thank you so much, Rebecca, and Dan, and I'm delighted to be here today. So a little bit about myself. I joined the EDA 12 years ago, after successive positions working in the public policy and advocacy space in the provincial government with a lobby firm and another industry association in the manufacturing sector. I've been president and CEO for over five years now, which I can't believe it really has flown by quickly. As for the association, the Electricity Distributors Association is the voice of Ontario's electricity distribution sector to decision makers at Queen's Park. We are the trusted and vital source for advocacy insight information for Ontario's LDCs. The municipally owned privately owned companies that safely and reliably deliver electricity to over 5 million Ontario homes, businesses and public institutions. Our mission is to provide our local distribution companies with a valued industry knowledge, networking opportunities and collective action vital to the business success of each member. And our vision is to shape the future for LDCs to be the premier service providers to Ontarians in the evolving energy system. Dan Seguin 04:20 As the voice for more than 60 local distribution companies. Maybe you can talk about the power of local hydro campaign, its purpose, and what you're trying to convey to residents of Ontario, Teresa Sarkesian 04:34 Of course, so in 2018, the EDA launched its innovative and award winning power of local hydro campaign, which is a public relations program designed to position and promote the local hydro utilities to government and the public. The goal of the campaign was to raise awareness and visibility of the sector and the value they provide to customers and communities. That value includes providing safe and reliable electricity service support to customers on innovative programs and solutions and providing economic support through dividends. So communities can invest in roads, hospitals, and recreation centers. One of the most important aspects of the campaign is that customers count on and trust the local utility to keep the lights on and help them manage their energy use. We have the trust because we work with our customers one on one in the communities where they live, work and play LDCs have a customer first mindset, which is communicated through the campaign with the tagline being on the frontlines of power, Dan Seguin 05:34 Being in public affairs. I'm looking forward to your response for the next question. Does the campaign have more significance in any election year like 2022? And if so, why? Teresa Sarkesian 05:47 Yes, Dan, I think the power of local hydro campaign has more significance during an election year. As distributors, we continue to have our fingers on the pulse of what Ontarians want from their electricity system. And we want to help customers better understand the evolving electricity system now that electricity is being seen as the answer to many climate change and netzero challenges. Customers will turn to their local utility to ask questions and seek advice on a wide range of electricity matters. And similarly, candidates and politicians will monitor what EDA has to say around electricity issues, as they understand that LDCs are on the frontlines with customers and know what is important to them. Rebecca Schwartz 06:29 So, Teresa, your organization has communicated that Ontario's power system is changing and that local utilities are on the front lines. What exactly do you mean by that? Teresa Sarkesian 06:39 customer demands and expectations are changing both in terms of interest in using new technologies, as well as service oriented expectations. Many households and businesses are embracing new ways to manage their power use while exploring electric vehicles, solar panel installation, battery storage switching from gas to electric heating, through ground source heat pumps, and other cost saving technologies that help reduce energy waste. Customers are looking for information and advice to connect to the distribution grid and possibly sell their surplus generation or storage back to the grid. The relationship with the customer is now developing into a two way street much more dynamic and integrated than in the past, when the flow of energy was one way only, and LDCs are well positioned to facilitate electrification of the economy, such as supporting the development of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and to capitalize on the opportunities related to energy storage from electric vehicles connecting to the grid LDCs are ready and able to assist, operate and own charging infrastructure services to plug in the growing demand for private and public electrify transportation. We want to work with government and third parties to help customers explore these options safely and cost effectively while ensuring that we deliver on our responsibility to maintain the reliability of the distribution grid. Dan Seguin 08:00 Okay, Teresa, I understand that the Electricity Distributors Association relies on input and guidance from dedicated subject matter experts who serve on the diverse councils and committees. Could you impact or provide examples of how these groups guide the development of your policies and how that impacts utilities and electricity customers? Teresa Sarkesian 08:24 Thanks for that question, Dan. We have over if you can believe this 150 volunteers from the LDC members that serve on one or more of our eight standing councils and committees. They are an extraordinarily committed group of subject matter experts from all corners of the province, representing utilities and communities of all sizes. These EDA councils and committees come together in response to government agency and regulatory consultations and some are very, very technical. The EDA is the platform that brings the industry together and we build consensus based industry positions to present to government agencies and regulators in the province. Over the past couple of years, we have prepared 50 policy submissions annually, and we are on track to do the same in 2021. Examples are far reaching from building changes to enable a customer choice model to supporting the implementation of broadband expansion to shaping ISO market renewal design. Our elected board also provides additional policy guidance on longer term issues. Our power to connect vision papers which set out a 15 year vision to explore new business models for LDCs in enabling distributed energy resources, were some recent strategic thought leadership from our board. And we are exploring more policy work in the area of net zero impacts on the distribution sector. So stay tuned for further insights on that issue. Our volunteers are highly engaged, and I would like to thank them for their time and expertise to the industry. Rebecca Schwartz 09:55 Can you provide us with examples where collectively with utilities you proposed and advanced policy solutions at Queen's Park, which ones are you most proud of? Teresa Sarkesian 10:05 Well, we have so many examples, Rebecca. So it was hard for me to choose. But I'm going to pick a couple from the last couple of years because I think during the pandemic, I'm particularly proud of our advocacy when things are so chaotic, down with decision makers at Queen's Park. So one way we demonstrated our customer first mandate was related to the COVID Energy Assistance Program. At the beginning of COVID. Last year, the EDA raised concerns with government that customers were struggling with electricity costs. Because of the lockdown associated with the pandemic. The EDA in its members developed and tabled ideas to provide financial support to residential and small business customers, and to provide partial relief from the global adjustment for larger customers. From there, we work closely with the Ministry of Energy to develop and implement the guidelines for the COVID-19 energy assistance program called CEAP and later the CEAP Small Business Initiative, with government providing 17 million in funding through the first phase of the pandemic. After a subsequent advocacy push from EDA and 2021. An additional 23 million was approved for the CEAP programs. CEAP has assisted more than 62,000 Ontario households and more than 13,000 small businesses. And the CEAP program is a great example of how utilities put customers first. And we're particularly proud of that because it was such a trying time, and it feels good to know that customers were supported by the utilities. The second example is our long standing advocacy efforts on the Ontario Energy boards modernization. We were very pleased this past year to see many of the EDA's modernization recommendations incorporated into the Minister of Energy's mandate letter to the OB chair. This issue has been and continues to be a multi year priority for our sector, we are confident that there will be constructive change ahead to reduce regulatory burden for LDCs. So utilities can focus more on meeting customer needs as the energy sector transforms. Dan Seguin 12:01 Okay. Now, in your vision paper the power to connect advancing customer driven electricity solutions for Ontario, what are you proposing as a new way forward for Ontario's electricity system? Teresa Sarkesian 12:16 As you know the electricity sector is transforming rapidly, we are moving towards a two way electricity flow. With more customers generating and storing energy behind the meter, LDCs have a unique opportunity to be at the forefront of grid transformation by deploying these enabling technologies and developing a service platform that provides new innovative offerings to customers and DER providers. We recognize consumers as drivers of change and local distribution utilities are really at the center of that change with them. We can leverage new technologies to deliver high quality electricity services, and help customers connecting to the grid. We envision local utilities owning operating and integrating small scale clean energy and storage systems, also known as distributed energy resources right into the local grid to better meet consumer needs while augmenting the bulk power grid. We think LDCs should have a greater role as we move forward in areas such as digitalization of utilities in the grid planning locally, regionally and for the bulk system, and to provide alternatives where possible, that are lower cost than traditional capital investments. Rebecca Schwartz 13:27 Okay, great. So now how can utilities best serve the interests of its customers in today's evolving industry? Teresa Sarkesian 13:34 Well, I think Rebecca, we can best serve the interests of our customers by doing what LDCs do best. That's by continuing to build connections and trust with Ontarians through our customer centric approach to service by staying close and by providing knowledge and guidance to our customers on what matters to them most. Whether that's managing bills, conservation programs, ensuring reliability, supporting EV charging connections, whatever it may be. LDCs are trusted by customers and expected to have the answers and solutions to help them engage in a customized way with the evolving energy grid. Rebecca Schwartz 14:08 Alright, so our utilities aligned with Ontario's long term energy plan as it relates to cost effective electricity and greenhouse gas emission reduction targets? Teresa Sarkesian 14:18 Well, that's a great question because Ontario has a relatively clean grid compared to many other jurisdictions. While there is still room to improve, we need to focus efforts on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, where we will achieve the greatest reduction. therefore reducing emissions in the transportation sector and in the building sector are expected to play a bigger role in meeting broader climate change targets given that emissions from those two sectors comprise approximately 60% of all greenhouse gas emissions in Ontario. And utilities are very keen to support the fuel switching from gas to electric vehicles as a critical part of reducing greenhouse gases in Ontario. It poses an interesting challenge that as we decarbonize our economy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, electricity use is expected to actually grow, we need to ensure that low or no emitting resources are pursued, such as renewables, energy storage and energy efficiency, along with other emerging technologies, such as hydrogen and small modular reactors. Presently, Ontario does not have a comprehensive public policy framework on these matters. We are looking forward to new direction coming out of the province on a multitude of initiatives including a new long term energy plan, and electrification strategy potentially from the Ministry of Transportation, and a new environmental plan from the Ministry of the Environment. I do want to speak to the electricity system because we would like to see a renewed emphasis on conservation and energy efficiency, with LDCs being at the forefront of these initiatives. For every kilowatt hour saved, one less kilowatt hour needs to be generated. Ontario has an unusual arrangement where conservation is centrally run, and not led by the local distribution companies, which is the more common practice in other jurisdictions across North America. LDCs are keen to provide conservation programs as part of a broader, more comprehensive package of solutions to help customers manage energy use and costs. LDCs were very successful in delivering conservation in Ontario the past few years LDCs deliver conservation at a cost of 1.5 cents a kilowatt hour, which was unparalleled in North America. It would be great to bring back that cost efficient and effective approach to the province and put LDCs back in the driver's seat on designing and delivering conservation for customers. Dan Seguin 16:48 Same line of questioning here Teresa, can you share with our listeners the views of your association on the long term strategy for EVs and electrification in Ontario? Teresa Sarkesian 17:02 So LDCs are at the forefront and have the expertise and relationships that will be crucial to expanding electrification. LDCs need to be central to supporting an electrification strategy in Ontario given the challenges utilities will face with increased load and capacity issues. And there is an opportunity to also harness the storage capacity of electric vehicle batteries to assist with grid reliability, particularly in emergency situations. But for LDCs to fully seize this opportunity ahead and effectively manage the challenges associated with large scale electrification, regulatory frameworks need to be better aligned with these fast emerging trends. Incorporating electrify transportation infrastructure should be viewed with the same regulatory lens as investing in poles, wires and transformers. There is a broader societal benefit. And while many LDCs are eager to build EV infrastructure, they face barriers today and getting in included in their rate base. That in turn is a crucial factor in enabling them to justify it amortize a significant upfront investment required to ensure system reliability with growing EV charging. And the same challenge applies to investments needed to support transit and fleet electrification as well. The current rate classes are not well suited to fast charging requirements and this is a disincentive to strategic infrastructure investment in the context of transit and fleet charging in particular, overnight or other rate classes designed to accommodate and equitably price fleet EV charging has already been implemented elsewhere and are needed in Ontario. Dan Seguin 18:38 Thanks. Now, what is your organization's role in the electrification of transportation? Teresa Sarkesian 18:45 So it's an exciting time for the sector to be part of this and electrification will play a significant part in Ontario's netzero future and LDCs need to play a key role in enabling the full potential of EVs in Ontario. So what is the EDA doing? so the EDA continues to participate in multi stakeholder discussions with a range of parties and government officials. Currently, we are participating on the transportation electrification Council, which is a working groups set up by the Ministry of Transportation. And that's going to go on for the next few more months, but recurring themes today include the need for rate basing of charging infrastructure to help stimulate expansion of public charging networks and for the longer term benefit of ratepayers and also discussion of challenges relating to household EV charging, such as the potential need for major electrical upgrades. But we have ongoing advocacy related to electrification, not only with the Ministry of Transportation, but across government and with the agencies and the regulator. Rebecca Schwartz 19:45 Teresa, in one of your policy papers, Roadmap to a brighter Ontario, you identified current barriers to the evolution of local distribution companies for the future. Can you expand on what those are and perhaps what are some solutions? Teresa Sarkesian 19:59 Absolutely. At least so currently we are as a sector lacking a comprehensive regulatory framework on distributed energy resources. There are some consultation and review processes in play at both the Ontario Energy Board and at the Independent Electricity System Operator, but they are both at the fairly early development stage, there needs to be the ability to have remuneration and more certainty and clarity, going forward to establish the role of LDCs in supporting and optimizing the electricity grid. So I want to talk about a few barriers that we have identified. So one of the challenges we have is that we must improve the distribution system plans through investments in grid visibility, we need to ensure that LDCs are permitted to make investments in grid visibility to benefit fully from the value of DERs. And by improving visibility, it will ensure that the distribution system plans are developed with greater certainty and prudence. Greater visibility also increases the ability of LDCs to coordinate with the ISO to further optimize broader electricity system benefits. Another area of concern we have is we need to remove restrictions on LDC ownership of DER resources. Currently, LDCs are restricted to owning DERs of 10 megawatts or less, there should be more flexibility in owning the large DERs and the LDC sector also needs more clarity on behind the meter ownership of the DERs. There is some light guidance by the OEB right now that will allow the ownership of behind the meter non wires alternatives, as they call them, if it can be demonstrated to be more cost effective than traditional capital investments, but we still need more certainty to ensure that is the case going forward. Another area of concern for our sector is we need to allow LDCs to control and operate DER assets for two primary purposes. And these are often DER assets that are owned by customers behind the meter. But we need to have ability to control and operate these for two main reasons. One is to allow for coordination and aggregation of DERs to respond to ISO led procurements pertaining to province wide system reliability. And also to coordinate and aggregate DERs to address local reliability within the distribution network. So these are just a few of I think we have about 15 solutions, but I thought I would just target three for the audience today. Dan Seguin 22:27 This next one is very interesting - for me. How will distributed energy resources change the relationship between utilities and customers. Teresa Sarkesian 22:38 While many utilities are interested in optimizing DERs that reside behind the meter and may be underutilized by customer owners and operators. Currently, there is over 4000 megawatts of DERs behind the meters of utilities across Ontario. Better digitalization of utility will provide visibility of where all those resources sit on the distribution grid. With that knowledge and the ability of LDCs to be permitted to offer price signals, owners and operators of these DERs could choose to sell back some of the generation or storage to assist the utility in supporting grid reliability. And in order to dispatch the DERs utilities will need to invest in advanced control systems to achieve this level of grid sophistication. This integration of customer assets on the distribution grid will potentially create more efficiencies in the system by delaying or avoiding other generation or transmission investments. It will be a much more dynamic relationship with customers than in the past. Rebecca Schwartz 23:37 Wow, I can't believe that 2022 is already upon us. So what are the top two issues that could impact utilities, their shareholders and the more than 5 million customers across the province? Teresa Sarkesian 23:51 Well, that's a great question, Rebecca. So one of the issues that we see that could be important for our sector and customers will be the post pandemic economic recovery and the upcoming provincial election in Ontario. So with regard to the post pandemic economic recovery, there has been a lot of discussion about the opportunities related to electrification. So depending on how fast government would like to move, or to incent electrification in Ontario, this could be really quite challenging for LDCs to be at the ready, because as I mentioned before, we need to make sure that we have the proper capital investments, remuneration and visibility tools to make sure that we can effectively electrify Ontario's economy. And with regard to the Ontario election, depending on the election results, there is always a possibility that there may be a change in focus for the energy sector. So if there might be a shift in government, perhaps they might want to go harder or faster on net zero or electrification targets. So we'll have to wait and see what happens. I guess the election is only about seven months away now. Dan Seguin 24:58 Okay, Teresa Now for the fun part. How about we close off with some rapid fire questions? Okay, first one, what is your favorite word? Teresa Sarkesian 25:11 Compassion Dan Seguin 25:13 What is the one thing you can't live without Teresa Sarkesian 25:17 my sense of humor Dan Seguin 25:18 What is something that challenges you? Teresa Sarkesian 25:21 Working in the ever changing electricity sector is both challenging and rewarding. Dan Seguin 25:27 Now, if you could have one superpower, what would it be? Teresa Sarkesian 25:32 Not needing to sleep. Dan Seguin 25:35 Okay, if you could turn back time and talk to your 18 year old self, what would you tell her? Teresa Sarkesian 25:43 Well, that would be going back a very long time ago at this stage, Dan. But what I would say to her is be brave and take a year to travel, because you won't have the time to do it again for a very, very long time for a whole year, perhaps not until retirement. Dan Seguin 25:58 And lastly, what do you currently find most interesting in your sector? Teresa Sarkesian 26:05 I think it's the energy transformation journey we are all on right now. We are part of a global transformation on electrifying society. It's not just happening in Ontario. It is happening all across the world. It is so exciting to be part of global change. And I can't say I've really ever had that before in my career. Rebecca Schwartz 26:24 Alright, Theresa, we reached the end of another episode of The ThinkEnergy podcast. Thanks so much for joining us today. We hope you had fun. Teresa Sarkesian 26:32 I did. Thank you so much. It was great to chat with you today. Rebecca Schwartz 26:36 I sure hope you enjoyed this episode of The ThinkEnergy podcast. If so please head over to our iTunes SUBSCRIBE And leave us a review. Dan Seguin 26:44 Now For show notes and bonus content visit thinkenergypodcast.ca. Also, be sure to tell your friends and colleagues about us. Thank you for listening
Guests:Raya Ahmed is a climate justice defender from Lamu. She holds Bachelor of Science in Development Studies and is the founder of Lamu Women Alliance which is a consortium organizations under Save Lamu, championing climate justice and women's rights. In 2019, she was awarded the Lamu County Mashujaa by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyata,and the Shujaa Female Activist of the Year Award by MUHURI/ Coast Women's Magazine.Omar Elmawi is a lawyer who helps communities assert their rights and have their voices heard on various development projects. He coordinates the deCOALonize campaign – a movement that, with the help of community engagement, public activism and legal advocacy, pushes for green and sustainable energy solutions and is opposed to coal-related industrialization in Kenya and the region. He is also the coordinator of the Stop EACOP campaign that is against the construction of the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline. Twitter: @OmarElmawiGino Cocchiaro is the Director of Programmes and Development at Natural Justice, where he previously served as the Director of the Kenya Hub as well as the Director of the Extractives and Infrastructure Programme. He is legally trained and has supported communities to participate in environmental decision-making processes in Southern Africa and Kenya. He was the lead lawyer from Natural Justice against the Lamu coal plant and has worked closely with the communities of Lamu since 2010. Twitter: @GinoCocchiaro Host:Professor Dan Banik, University of Oslo, Twitter: @danbanik @GlobalDevPodhttps://in-pursuit-of-development.simplecast.com/
---Join us for our Summer Rewind series as we feature past podcast episodes!--- EPISODE #38: Waterpower is Canada's most abundant source of clean and renewable electricity. In fact, because of this, Canada is the second largest generator of hydroelectricity in the world. So, what's next for Canada's waterpower industry? Is there untapped potential? What are the plans for growth nationally and what influence does it have on the world stage? Our special guest, Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin, President and CEO of WaterPower Canada, helps us demystify the water industry. Related Content & Links: https://hydroottawa.com/ Websites: waterpowercanada.ca Twitter: @WaterPowerCA LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/canadian-hydropower-association/ Transcript: Dan Seguin 00:02 Hey, everyone, welcome back. This is the ThinkEnergy podcast, one of Canada's oldest hydroelectric generating station was commissioned right here in the nation's capital in 1891. Located in the heart of downtown Ottawa, is a stone throws away from the parliament building. Chaudière Falls is still providing clean and renewable electricity today, nearly 130 years after it went into service. While hydroelectricity first powered our great country, it was fossil fuel that became the dominant energy source of the 20th century. But it seems that what was old is new again. And cleaner electricity is making a comeback in a big way. I'm convinced it will be the energy source that powers the 21st century. Because Canada is a water rich country, it's not surprising that water power is Canada's most abundant source of clean, and renewable electricity. It provides more than 60% of our country's total electricity, with an installed capacity soon exceeding 85,000 megawatts. As such, Canada is the second largest generator of hydroelectricity in the world after China. To reduce Canada's emissions of greenhouse gases that cause climate change, we must strategically reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and increase the amount of electricity we produce from non-emitting and renewable energy resources. Hydroelectricity produces no air pollution, and has ultra-low greenhouse gas emissions, especially for those stations that are run of the river. From a full lifecycle assessment basis, Canada's hydro power is amongst the lowest emitting resources available and like Chaudière falls proves hydro power assets can last well over 100 years if properly maintained, making them very cost effective long term investments. Canada is already a leader in hydro power generation, but it has a potential to more than double its current capacity, thanks to its abundant, untapped water power resource. Contrary to popular opinion, Canadian hydro power is cost competitive, which helps keep rates low for customers. In fact, provinces with the highest hydro power installed capacity tend to have the lowest electricity costs. So here's today's big question: What's next for Canada's water power industry? What are the plans for growth nationally? And what influence does it have on the world stage? Our special guest today will help demystify the water industry: Waterpower Canada's president and CEO, Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin. Perhaps you can start by telling us a bit about yourself, what drew you to your current role, and how you became an advocate for renewable energy, particularly waterpower. Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 04:04 I think what really brought me to waterpower is a mixed bag of training and experiences. I specialized in environmental law at school. So my passion has always been sustainability and environmental protection. And after graduating, I had the opportunity to work for justice for a bit mostly focusing on mining projects. But that kind of took me to the next you know, job which was to work for Hatch, an international engineering firm, where I worked on international project projects across the world as an environmental and social impact management specialist. So that's where I got my hands dirty in terms of really seeing how projects are done from start to finish the whole pre-feasibility to commissioning. So that was very, very good, a great experience over about four years. And then I kind of switched a little bit - wanting to have a broader approach to sustainability. So not just look at projects, but also look at corporate sustainability. How do you integrate that thinking into your processes, the way you work with your employees? And also how do you continue to obviously implement the best procedures on projects. And so I looked at other opportunities. And I was then hired by what was then called the Canadian Hydropower Association, which we rebranded about two years ago as Waterpower Canada. So that was my first real exposure to the water power industry. Now, about seven years ago, I'd say, which, you know, time flies, as they say, but it's been a great experience, because it really allowed me to bring my legal experience and my passion for sustainability in my role as an advocate for renewable energy. Dan Seguin 06:01 What is the mission of Waterpower Canada? And what kind of initiatives is it pursuing to advance and support hydro power, nationally, and even internationally, Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 06:13 So we are a national trade association. So our mission as an organization is really to promote and actively advocate for hydropower. That means, you know, promoting the existing assets, the existing fleet, promoting the attributes, what it does for Canadians what it does for the country in general, and also promoting future developments, be it sometimes reinvestment in the fleet through refurbishment redevelopments, or, of course, as well, Greenfield, Greenfield projects. So nationally that's really our focus is to bring awareness, I always say my job is 50%, government relations, 50% communications, and they tend to marry in the sense that you're always communicating in this field, right, you're always trying to bring more knowledge and more awareness about your sector, no matter who you're talking to. But you aim it a different way, depending on kind of where you focus, what you focus on. And then internationally, we definitely focus more and more on, on working with the US in terms of leveraging the clean exports of hydro power to the US. It's not a new thing. You know, it's been ongoing for decades. And it's been a huge source of wealth for Canada and for certain provinces in particular. But it is something that we see as an opportunity in the future because the US has a pretty emission intensive electricity sector. And they're looking at decarbonizing similar to us, right, but they don't have necessarily all the attributes ready to go that that we can offer in Canada, and we are very connected north-south. So it is it is almost a self-fulfilling prophecy in the sense of being able to send us clean electrons across the border, without too many too many hurdles. So we were also kind of deploying that kind of efforts internationally. Dan Seguin 08:15 In Canada, we know about the environmental benefits of hydro power, in terms of renewable energy, cleaner air, and less pollution, overall, perhaps less known lies under the surface, and the impact of these facilities, particularly turbines can have on fish and other water species. Can you talk a bit about what the industry is doing to contribute to the recovery of endangered, threatened and other species at risk? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 08:47 The first thing I'll say is that our sector has been around for more than a century. So any impact that we have is very well understood, and has been very well studied. And there's been a lot of research going into avoidance or when you cannot avoid an impact, mitigation, right, which is the rule for sure. So in terms of fish habitats, in particular, I'll give you an example which is something I've learned through my career working within the water power sector. And it's quite interesting and it happens across the nation right from coast to coast to coast, but you have requirements that are set by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and also of course, by your local regulating bodies, that you know, operate at different levels. And those you know, dictate kind of the measures that you have to put in place and in many cases when you have a hydro site, runoff river or reservoir, you tend to have offsets and you know protocols or fish habitat banking is what we call and without getting into the you know the terminology of you know, that we use with an industry, but through those techniques, you actually have a great opportunity to operate a site that now has a greater fish population that what you found when you actually started with your Greenfield project, and that has been seen and studied. And there's been a lot of, you know, case studies presented on this, where, you know, different fish species actually respond very well to habitat banking. And, they're thriving, more than, you know, maybe the conditions that they were having before the hydro site was developed. So it's that that's just an example. And of course, it's a great success story, but it's not to overshadow the fact that, yes, we operate in water, we do have impacts, and there's always, and they will always be room for improvements. And so a lot of research above and beyond this protocols and, and systems that we implement. A lot of research is actually invested in making sure that the first rule is to avoid impacts, and you don't turn to mitigation right away. Dan Seguin 11:10 When you envision the future of hydro power, what do you see? And what are some of the most exciting things that the industry is doing? Or that Waterpower Canada is spearheading? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 11:23 So, you know, with COVID-19, of course, the landscape is different now. But I'm going to put that aside, and for the only reason that we don't know what's going to happen, right, we don't know what's going to happen post COVID the ramifications how long it's going to last. So kind of crystal balling the future on this is a bit of a risky exercise. But if I if I said that crisis aside, what was really exciting, just you know, over the past few years, and what we were lining up and gearing up to, to work on was the huge wave of refurbishment and redevelopment. The average age of a hydropower facility in Canada is 50 years. And that's about the same in the US, right? Our assets are what we call generational assets. Which is great, because you can refurbish them, you know, throughout generations, and it's yours to keep for decades and decades and decades. But what it also means is that every once in a while you have to invest, and inject those capital reinvestments so that you can continue to operate your fleet. And also, you know, modernize the fleet. So that's very exciting. Because no matter what happens with the global pandemic situation, this is going to happen, I don't know if it's going to happen within the next year, or now within the next five years. But what it means is that it's going to inject billions in the Canadian economy, it's going to sustain a lot of jobs. And it's going to help us decarbonize, you know, further, we already have about an 80%, non-emitting electricity grid, thanks to Hydro and other renewables, and thanks to nuclear, but of course, there's more room for improvement. And so anything you can do to leverage your existing fleet and just pull out those clean electrons is good news in a very exciting. Dan Seguin 13:15 What do you think is the biggest myth or misunderstanding about water power? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 13:20 You know, I, there are quite a few. So but it raises my blood pressure when I think about all of them, so I'll just focus on one. But what I what I hear often and above and beyond the lack of knowledge, generally speaking, I think it's always mind boggling to hear that people don't necessarily know or understand the role that waterpark plays in our in our generation mix. But above and beyond that, I think that the biggest misunderstanding is the fact that people really assume that hydro is an old, dusty, non-innovative technology, because we've been around for so long. And it is actually really, really incorrect because we've been around for so long because we are extremely innovative because we are extremely fine tuning research. Every corner that we take, right, and if we weren't innovative, and if we weren't investing in digitalization and new systems, we wouldn't have survived. And so I always say that the original clean tech in Canada is water power, and is the most enduring one, which is a pretty impressive fact. Dan Seguin 14:33 The hydro power sector contributes more than $30 billion to the Canadian economy and supports a labor force 130,000 strong. What kind of growth does waterpower Canada foresee in the future? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 14:47 So just through the refurbishments and redevelopments that was talking about earlier. This is going to trigger a huge growth in the fleet because with no major new and harmful impacts with, you know, a pretty reasonable injection of funds into your fleet, you can actually get a lot more generation out of an existing site. So that's very exciting. And, it's going to trickle down in terms of economic ramifications. But what we will always kind of try and advocate for is to not let go of Greenfield hydro. And, and the exciting thing about hydro is it comes in many shapes and forms. So you don't have to just focus on large hydro reservoir, you also have run of the river of all sizes , by the way, because a lot of people assume that run off river is small hydro, but you can have 1000 megawatt, run of the river facilities, right, which is pretty big. But what's really exciting too, and we hear about more and more these days is pump storage. So we, you know, we didn't focus too much on pump storage, I think as a nation in the past, because we didn't really have to, we had so many easily developable sites run of the river, reservoir and reservoir is embedded storage, right. So it's a great way to have on demand clean electricity. But now more and more, we're looking at exciting projects that are investing in pumped storage, and its across Canada, as well, there's a project in Ontario, another one in Alberta, but pump storage is basically a closed loop hydro system where you have elevation, and you take advantage of that elevation to bring water down, and then back up depending on cost of electricity and low demand. So that you can meet peak load requirements, and also reduce your expenditure by managing that curve, in a very smart way. So it is it is very innovative. It is it is something that again has existed for many, many years. It's nothing new. But we had we haven't really invested a lot in this technology in Canada. So far, it's much more common in the US. But I see this coming more and more top of mind. Dan Seguin 17:19 Hydro power infrastructure is designed to withstand floods, and often plays an important role in flood mitigation and management. We've learned that in Ottawa the hard way in 2017, and 2019. Has climate resilience and adapting to the impacts of climate change been front of mind, for Canada's electricity producers? Where do you see making the biggest impacts? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 17:46 So yeah, we are investing a lot in climate change research. And I'd say it should be a priority for any sector, probably in the world. So there's a lot of research going on, we are partnering with modeling agencies, like , who helped us, you know, understand, not just the impacts on the hydropower fleet, but kind of bring in external factors as well that are going to affect climate change. The difficulty and the challenge in the country that's as big as Canada is the fact that your impacts are not going to be one general, one size fits all for the sector. So you won't be able to use general categorization for your industry, you're going to have to get regions, of course. And I remember actually a few years ago, during the floods that were happening in Ontario and Quebec, my members in BC, were saying that they were actually observing low levels in their reservoirs. And so that just speaks to the fact that it's not just a small difference, you have an extreme event happening in one side of the country, and another extreme event as a drought on the other side of the country. So what that means is you have to be extremely flexible. And people have to design especially when they refurbish and when they build new sites with climate change in mind every step of the way. Dan Seguin 19:08 You've touched on this earlier Anne-Raphaëlle, hydro power has been around for more than 100 years. What does the untapped potential in Canada look like? And what are some of the innovations within the sector that makes it even more attractive? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 19:27 Yeah. So that's one of the other misconceptions that I was alluding to earlier on a previous question. When that when I talk to Canadians and also to policymakers, sometimes they tell me Well, you know, yes, we've got a lot of hydro power in Canada, it's more than 60% of our generation. But surely, because it's so big, we must be tapped out. There must not be any more hydro to develop. And it couldn't be further from the truth. We actually have a lot of water In Canada, we've got good innovation, great sights still to develop. So our untapped potential is actually more than double our existing installed capacity. So we've got about 85,000 megawatts of current installed capacity. So you can, you can only imagine what we could do if we were to just develop a portion of the untapped technical potential. And, and the great news about that now, I always emphasize that when I when I speak at conferences, or when I have discussions with government, and stakeholders in general is to say that, that potential is not just a reality in in one province, it's a reality across the country. So when we look at decarbonizing, electrifying, all of those great things that you know are happening are going to happen, you know, over the next few years, it's just a must to look at what you could do with your hydro resources in your province or in your territory, because it's there, it exists. Dan Seguin 21:01 Technology is enhancing digitization, and automation of hydro power plants to realize their full potential. What are some of the digital solutions around monitoring, maintenance, and service that you see the industry benefiting from either now or the near future? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 21:22 So I hear a lot about virtual reality, and also artificial intelligence in my sector. And of course, they're two different things, but they tap into that new world of technologies that can help you operate your site in a different way. I think anything that's going to allow us to have remote access to our sites, and that means from a controlling operation. Also, from a supply chain perspective - actually COVID-19 brought one positive from my perspective, which is the fact that we're leveraging tools, more and more that allow us to do remote inspection, for example, because of course, during the pandemic, we couldn't actually go to two warehouses and inspect equipment as it was coming in from China, wherever across the world, right? You had to just wait until it arrived on site. And sometimes we're talking big pieces of furniture, now just a screw and a hammer. So just having tools that really allow you to get in and take a full scope, engineering, look at your equipment, as it comes in before it is delivered is a huge progress, and those tools exists. And that was a huge discovery, I think for me, because I wasn't aware that technology was that far ahead, already ready to respond. Another example, which is always interesting, because I've toured quite a few hydro sites. And I remember at one of the oldest sites in Canada, you know, we were looking at the control room: tons of switches, you know, probably a room that could probably accommodate eight to 10 people at one time. And, and the operator was saying, well, we refurbished and now the person can actually control everything from his living room at home, and is that his laptop, because it's all integrated, and the system is talking to that control room here on site. And that's all it takes. So automation is definitely going to be needed in the future. But it doesn't mean that we won't need, you know, physical, you know, staff and people to manage, because, of course, it's still going to be a huge requirement, but it is more efficient. And that is every day that that kind of innovation happens. Dan Seguin 23:44 You indicated earlier that waterpower in Canada provides more than 90% of our renewable power and 60% of our overall electricity supply. Canada is blessed with an abundance of untapped potential, residing both in existing sites and new developments. Any thoughts on the pros and cons of refurbishment and redevelopment opportunities versus the development of new projects? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 24:15 Yes. So I mean, it's all case specific: that's the obvious answer. And so what makes sense for a site may not make sense for another one, meaning that, you know, we've got a lot of members that are actually assessing a specific site and considering everything like from decommissioning, which is, you know, turning off the lights basically and saying, Okay, this asset has played its role and that we're going to return the site back to nature. When the economy, you know, just circumstances or environmental or just the general circumstances surrounding a specific site dictate certain decisions. So I think it's not very common that, you know, people would decide to decommission a hydro site because most of the time, even if it's just a little bit of generation, when you've had a site for 80-90 years, and you've refurbished it and maintained it over the years, it's still it's still a great provider of clean electricity. It's still a money-maker for the utility or for the independent power producer. So it's still definitely a great benefit to have within your fleet. But so I don't see any downside to refurbishment, or redevelopment. I think it's a low hanging fruit for electrification, it's something that's going to happen. It's just a question of when, and Greenfield hydro is not going anywhere. I think it's just, let's focus on what we can do first, which is refurbishment. It's the obvious thing to do and it's needed. And in a decade or two, we'll probably see another wave of investment in Greenfield hydro. Dan Seguin 25:55 Before I forget, are you able to demystify for our listeners what Greenfield hydro is? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 26:03 Greenfield hydro means you take a site that is completely natural. So an untouched site, and you develop a hydro site. And it's a terminology that can be used for any industry, not just hydro. So you can say Greenfield mining Greenfield wind, it just means that you start with a site that hasn't been touched. Dan Seguin 26:24 Hydro power can provide abundant low carbon energy, with its storage from reservoir and pump storage. As the only renewable form of baseload electricity, how essential is hydro power to leading Canada's transition away from fossil fuels, while maximizing environmental benefits. Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 26:46 It's not only essential, it's critical. We always say that if we didn't have what a power within our generation mix, we would be in in a terrible situation as a country, because again, 60% of our overall electricity generation is coming from that big renewable giant, which is water power. So you know, if we take a step back and consider for one second the world we live in, in Canada, without water power, it would be quite different, and it would probably be much dirtier in terms of emissions. So we start with a huge asset, and a huge advantage compared to some countries and you know, people from across the world come to Canada to actually learn about our mostly non-emitting electricity grid. How did you do it? What are the systems you put in place? What is your regulatory environment? How did you get to where you are now? But of course, it's not to say that we are perfect because we're not we've got high emission, or emission intensive sectors. Some provinces are doing better than others for historical reasons, you know, different decisions. And I think we've been blessed with an abundance of natural resources across the nation. And so we shouldn't point fingers. It's really not about that. It's just about Okay, how do we get better? How do we clean up our system? So that we move away from, you know, negative emissions and move toward electrification, which is the priority? Right, the easiest thing to do is to turn to electrifying our transportation, of course, and then buildings, and hydropower is there, you know, we just need the right, you know, economic environment, the right signals from governments, in terms of regulatory streamlining, for example, in terms of regulations that incentivize investment in hydro, and the sector will respond because we've got the resources to develop and do more to decarbonize Canada. Dan Seguin 28:46 You've touched on this earlier, but wondering if we can explore further. Both Canada and the United States are looking for ways to reduce carbon emissions to meet greenhouse gas reduction targets. With 60% of US electricity still being generated from coal and gas powered thermal plants, is Canada's clean, renewable hydro power becoming an attractive option for Border States? How are those partnerships negotiated? Has it been an easy sell? Are those states coming to you? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 29:22 So it's as we discussed, yes, it's been something that has been done for years. So it's nothing new under the sun. But I think it's becoming more top of mind because big players like the mayor of New York, you know, for the past year has been saying, you know, we want to import a lot of clean and renewable hydro from Quebec. And he's right you know, it's a few hours north of his of his state. It's available there. There are big surpluses in Quebec it's the cheapest electricity you can buy not just in Canada - in North America. And it's a source of wealth for this province. And it's the same story in Manitoba. You know, who sends electricity to Minnesota and other states and neighboring that border on that side of the country, with new transmission lines going through the approval process in each of those jurisdictions. So I think this is definitely going to be more talked about in the future. I think it's probably rising to news headlines more and more because of politics. And depending on the political environment on either side of the border, it can be framed as a positive story, or it can be framed as a negative story, but for all intents and purposes for Canadians and for Americans, it is a great, great thing to do, because you decarbonize the system, you have a low electricity cost, and on top of everything, it's clean and renewable, so why wouldn't you do it? Dan Seguin 30:51 How about we close off with rapid fire questions? Are you ready? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 30:55 Okay. Dan Seguin 30:57 What is your favorite word? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 31:01 Um,you know, I'm a Francophone. But there's a word that I really like in English, not necessarily for its meaning, but for the sound it has on the tongue. It's serendipity. I just find it funny. It rolls well. Dan Seguin 31:14 What is the one thing you can't live without? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 31:17 Probably in equal measures: my family and coffee. Is that an acceptable answer? Dan Seguin 31:24 What is something that challenges you? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 31:29 As a mom, with a young family, I'm not a big fan of the terminology, you know, work life balance, but just trying to set some time for what's important, and not being consumed by work or other things. So just knowing your limits, I think is going to be a lifelong exercise for me. Dan Seguin 31:51 If you could have one superpower, what would it be? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 31:55 Oh, that's a good one. Probably traveling through time. Dan Seguin 32:00 Okay. If you could turn back time, and talk to your 18 year old self? What would you tell her? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 32:08 That you're on the right path, you know, continue to travel as much as you can. And, and learn from people who want to mentor you, you know, on your path to whatever you want to achieve. Because you know, people want to help each other. That's what I've learned. They're always happy to share insights. And most the time you just have to ask and people will be there to help you. Dan Seguin 32:33 And lastly, what do you currently find most interesting in your sector? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 32:40 I think all the excitement around the electrification, the fact that we know this is probably the next Industrial Revolution. It's hard to really tangibly feel what this is going to look like. But it's going to affect everybody in a good way. And there's not going to be one sector that's going to be left to the side because we're all going to need to collaborate. And so just that aspect of working together and being able to find new ways to revolutionize a system that has been implemented for years and years is very exciting. Dan Seguin 33:13 Last question for you. How can our listeners learn more about your organization? How can they connect? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 33:20 So website is always the first stop: waterpowercanada.ca We're very active on social media too, so they can find us on YouTube. They can find us on Twitter and on LinkedIn. And don't be a stranger because we love hearing from people. Dan Seguin 33:39 Thank you for joining us today. I truly hope you enjoyed this episode of The ThinkEnergy podcast. For past episodes, make sure you visit our website hydroottawa.com/podcast. Lastly, if you found value in this podcast, be sure to subscribe. Cheers, everyone.
(starts at 0:47 mark) A Black student at Memorial University has described his experience facing racism while on a staycation in the province. The student declined our interview request, but Raven Khadeja, co-founder of Black Lives Matter N-L spoke with us. (7:35) The Innu Nation is taking on Muskrat Falls hydroelectric rate mitigation in court. To shed light on Indigenous rights, two Indigenous artists from Quebec have created a piece called Hydro, featuring more than one hundred flickering lightbulbs at the Bonavista Biennale. (13:00) If you're looking to go kayaking during NL's hot summer, check out a new business, Black Pearl Kayak Rentals in Gander, and (18:46) the Atlantic Boychoir are finally back in one place for the first time since the pandemic started and they'll be on stage again at the end of this month.
James Chien from state-run energy enterprise Taipower joins us this week to discuss hydropower. Professor Jian-ping Suen of National Cheng Kung University's Department of Hydraulic and Ocean Engineering is also at hand to give additional information. We discuss how hydroelectricity is generated and the future of hydropower in Taiwan.
There is considerable academic literature on the resource curse thesis which aims to explain why resource-rich countries have not benefited from their oil and mineral resources. And this resource curse thesis within economics, political science, and sociology has numerous economic, political, social, and environmental dimensions.But in her work, our guest has often highlighted the inadequacies of the “resource curse” thesis particularly in explaining dissatisfaction with the pace of economic development in her own country – Nigeria.Zainab Usman is a senior fellow and Director of the Africa Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She has previously worked as a Public Sector Specialist at the World Bank and is co-author of the book, The Future of Work in Africa: Harnessing the Potential of Digital Technologies for All. She also contributed to World Bank’s flagship report – Rethinking Power Sector Reforms in Developing Countries. Her forthcoming book, Economic Diversification in Nigeria: The Politics of Building a Post-Oil Economy, is set to be published later this year.Zainab Usman on TwitterDan Banik and In Pursuit of Development on Twitter
Québec produces 32% of Canada’s total power generated from all sources, but is only responsible for 1% of the country’s GHG emissions linked to electric utilities. What lessons can we learn from Hydro Québec’s strategic approach to innovation, climate change, expansion and technology - and how they fit together to create one of the world’s leaders in a decarbonized future? To help guide us, we’ve invited the individual responsible for developing Hydro Quebec’s overall innovation vision, strategy and R&D efforts, David Murray, Chief Innovation Officer of Hydro‑Québec. Related Content & Links: David Murray Twitter: @DavidMurrayHQ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-murray-aa636666/ Hydro Quebec Twitter: @hydroquebec Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hydro-quebec/ Website: https://www.hydroquebec.com/residential/ --- Transcript: Dan Seguin 00:42 Everyone welcome back to another episode of The ThinkEnergy podcast. Today, we're going to talk about LaBelle province, Quebec, more specifically Hydro Quebec, one of the largest electric utilities in Canada, and how their innovation and clean energy practices are also helping to make the world a beautiful place. Hydro Quebec has 62 hydro power generating stations and 28 reservoirs, making it the largest hydroelectric power generator in the country. In 2019, the province generated almost 200 terawatt hours of electricity, with hydro power alone, and with 500,000 Lakes and 4500 rivers, Quebec has more hydroelectric potential, Quebec produces 32% of Canada's total power generated from all sources, but is only responsible for 1% of the country's GHG emissions link to electric utilities. What's more, Quebec residents have the lowest residential rates in North America. electricity prices are nearly twice as high in other provinces, and four times higher in places like New York and Boston. And Quebec is doing it all with 99% clean and renewable energy. What is Hydro Quebec's secret sauce? Some chalk it up to hydro Quebec's commitment to innovation, research and development. Hydro Quebec has two state of the art research centers known as Institut de recherche d’Hydro-Québec (IREQ). That's driving breakthroughs in the field of energy, particularly the provinces electrification of transportation, energy storage, and energy efficiency. More than any electric utility, Hydro Quebec is setting its sights on growth opportunities within and beyond borders, including an agreement to supply Massachusetts with 9.45 terawatts of power per year starting in 2022. So here's today's big question. What lessons can we learn about Hydro Quebec strategic approach to innovation, climate change, expansion and technology and how they fit together to create one of the world's leaders in a decarbonized future. To help us navigate the hallways of this behemoth. We've invited the individual responsible for developing Hydro Quebec overall innovation vision, strategy, and overseeing the company's r&d efforts. He is no stranger to large corporations, as he held senior positions in companies like Bilbao, GE Flextronics, Nortel networks, and Rolls Royce. Dear listeners, please welcome David Murray, Chief Innovation Officer of Hydro Quebec and the executive vice president of generation. Welcome, David. Let's dive into Hydro Quebec transition towards a greener and more efficient power system. What have been the biggest drivers for change and innovation that has led the organization to where it's at today? David Murray 04:21 Oh, that's a great question. So obviously, we are privileged at Hydro Quebec. I think the first thing that we need to say is that we're privileged because we carry on what has been done over 75 years ago. So some of our predecessors actually decided to go in green energy hydro power. And actually it was a debate at the time because nuclear nuclear electricity was was probably the alternative. And we're looking after to have these decisions who were lucky to have this already. But not because we have this is that we have you know to stay put and not do anything so innovation is key for different aspects not number one is actually specially today with the environment environment that needs it more than ever, so for us to push the boundaries and in greener Quebec, because yes, we are privileged, but there's still room for opportunities if we think about transportation, for example, second aspect is obviously, sometimes a bit sensitive of profitability. So we're privileged to have, you know, very, very low rates. And obviously, not only to export our electricity, but also for having more of the electrification and in Quebec province. So profitability would say, is the second aspect that we need to push, push the boundaries and in terms of innovation, and and i would say, the last aspect is actually the social aspect. So we have to be there in terms of keeping the rates as low as possible for the Quebecers. So for us, it brings us to a position where we need to innovate, we need to think differently. And actually, we need to push ourselves in defining the energetic Quebec of tomorrow, and this is what the team is doing. And obviously, we're privileged because we have our research institute, where we have about 500, you know, scientists working day in and day out on pushing the envelope. So we're we're actually probably in good position. And it is quite exciting to see what's going on right now at their research institute. Dan Seguin 06:23 Let's move on to the next question. the profitability of Hydro Quebec's operations allow you to pay a significant dividend to your shareholder, the Quebec government. Can you outline for us how this benefits constituents and contributes to the Quebec economy? David Murray 06:41 Yeah, so, roughly every year we do contribute you know, if I include taxes, if I include the rights on water, we contribute about 3.5-3.6 billion to the to the Quebec government. So which which is not, you know, quite quite important for for obviously, for the government specially in those times where, you know, our different governments are getting some inventions helping out into the pandemic situation. So, so this is this is what number two is what's important to understand also is that we do invest quite large amount of money into the Quebec province. So for example, we give roughly $3.4-3.5 billion of contracts into Quebec economy, year over year, so you're talking, you know, roughly seven plus billion dollars of return that we're, we're generating either tax or we're generating work into the Quebec province. So we are certainly an important aspect of the Quebec government. Dan Seguin 07:43 David. Last year, the federal government released a report stating that hydrogen will play a key part in Canada's plan for net zero emissions by 2050. What role will green hydrogen play in Quebec and its future energy mix? David Murray 08:02 So Hydrogen, you know, it's certainly something that's gonna, that is on the rise in terms of visibility, major investments going on through the world, if you think about Japan, you know, the Olympics are supposed to be, you know, based on hydrogen. Germany is also very, very focused in terms of investments and more and more now in North America. So obviously, it's going to be the same in Quebec. So and we already moved on a couple of projects of we've announced lately a projects in the petrol chemical area 88 or 90 megawatt electrolyzer that we've we've put in place, so you can, you can imagine the the size of the project, which is key, and there's another 20 megawatts, that we're also pushing in big on coal for another company. So we're roughly already involved with 100 megawatts and in terms of hydrogen. So for sure, that's going to be key. The other aspect of the Hydro Quebec is looking into and questioning itself is about transportation, so transportation for larger vehicles, I would say so smaller vehicles is going to be more most probably electric. Meanwhile, there's a lot of debate on this. But I mean, the momentum is there with the the the technology right now. So but hydrogen, I think is going to be a use for larger vehicles. And we're looking into this. We have different projects that they were looking into, but at the same time, we need to do it in the right time. Because you need the ecosystem to be there. So but at the same time, if you don't do it, either ecosystem is not going to be there. So it's kind of a vicious circle, but definitely and we believe that the hydrogen is going to play a role into reducing the GHG emission and our belief is that transportation is certainly going to be key into that aspect. Dan Seguin 09:50 Now since 1970 hydro Quebec's Research Institute IREQ has been developing advanced technologies and applications tailored to the energy sector to help improve the performance of its power systems and better serve customers. How and why was IREQ founded? What is its purpose? And what are the pillars that drive its vision. David Murray 10:19 So I'm on a research center, celebrated 50 years last year. So we've been, we've been existing since the 70s, early 70s, late 60s, so the idea actually was created the based on bringing large amounts of electricity from up north to the south, because typically, if you look at history, so you're gonna have your your dams are producing, you're producing center, close to, you know, where it's going to be used. But Quebec was built in a different way of the large amount of water is up north. So we had to, you know, be creative. And this is where Mr. Shambo with Research Center was put in place in order to find ways to bring the electricity from up north to south. And we needed large, large ways to transportation line. So this is where the 735 kV line created. So it really changed the way of doing business. You know, and instead of passing, like, multiple lines, you had one line that could do it, do it all, so that that was actually critical, and in the energy transition for Hydro Quebec. But now the research institute keeps pushing it. So we, we want to, again, we want to keep the boundaries, higher and push the limit in terms of electrification. And, you know, if you think that the system and the energy sector has been pretty stable, the way it's been doing business year over year, and now we are we're part of energy transition. So our IREQ, our research center is going to become key in in a couple of aspects. Number one, resilience over network. So obviously, with the climate changes, and everything that's happening, I mean, you have to, you know, think differently about how you're going to be building your network. Second is efficiency, obviously, we're privileged because we have one of the lowest rates, you know, in on the planet. But that doesn't mean that we have to take it for granted. So the team is working on on finding ways to do our lines better: different materials, for example, with bush lien, also into Hydro Quebec, in order to, you know, build some processes they'll be keeping rates as low as possible. Number three, is going to be the energy transition, I was talking about it earlier, this is crazy, you know, we're living something that's as big as the telco changes, I would say, with the energy transition, you know, just go back 5 years, you know, the world is completely different. And we're probably just at the beginning of it, where, you know, we're going to bring IoT devices and a new technology, new ways of producing decentralization behind the meter. So, I mean, there's so many things happening now. So there's so many variables. So it's important for researchers to think about this, and what's the best for the Quebecers with the best in the network to accommodate all these, these changes. And last but not least, is really working, you know, with data with software computing, in terms of focusing and giving an amazing customer experience. So customer services is key. So now we're going more and more about the experience, I would say, and we had lost that I would say, if I go back five years ago with Hydro Quebec now we've done a lot of progress. So there's still still some ways where we could we could improve, but our research center is working on software and in artificial intelligence in order to push the boundaries and bring us to the next level. Dan Seguin 13:58 Okay, let's keep on going here with with technology and innovation. I'm fascinated about your robotics department, and in particular, how you're leveraging drones that have the capability to land on energized conductors. Can you tell us about your robotics program and how these drones you developed are helping you with some very dangerous jobs? David Murray 14:26 Oh, you're touching a very important subject because I am a drone pilot. So I'm fascinated by drones. So I have my license. And I fly them once in a while. And a couple years ago, two - three years ago, I was at the Research Institute and I was walking by robotic department, the guys were playing with the drone, I could see them on the table. And I was like, Okay, I'm going there. I gotta go and see. And so I meet the team over there and telling them you know, bragging a little bit saying I'm a drone pilot, and everything says, Oh, that's cool. So, and I said, so Okay, so come here, come here and try that, you know, if you want to fly the drone, you know, I'm like, oh, okay, that could be interesting. And then I asked the price of the drone, and said, forget about it. So we're going to keep the experts doing what they do, and I'll stay on this side of the table. So drones, obviously, you know, these are new technologies, we have developed our robotic team different different tools. Now, I would say to help us out so we have line rangers for example, you know, as a spy that goes on the lines and can spec miles and miles of lines, which is great, because it's safer, we don't have to put people into this, you don't have to, you know, hijack these are employees and to make sure that the lines are okay, so these devices now can can make analysis on you know, online, and you can take, you know, recording pictures, whatever you want x rays, so this is crazy. Now, next step is really to bring your own drones. So, drones can can land on 735 kV lines, do inspections, and you can imagine the speed of doing things. So it goes back to what I was saying earlier. So you know, your health and safety is improved your efficiency and resilience of the network is there and you're doing it efficiently. So let's say that's helping us on reducing the rates and keeping rates low. So we're looking at different aspect now. So we're using it also on on dam inspection. So we're up north going so before use this trap the guy you know and go and inspect the the side of the dam and everything. So now you just buy the drone that takes you know, a fraction of the time, it's safer. And you get the you can do more at a certain level at the same time. So this is this is this is key. And the next thing that we're looking into is actually a fighter dome over stations, power stations and look at thermographic images to be able to detect if there are any weaknesses or pre defects so we can we can be more effective. So again, you can imagine, you know, the speed that you can do versus you know, having having people stop people working, you know, disconnect the power into this, and it's very inefficient. So now we got to use these technologies, so quite exciting. But I'm not going to fly these drones. I'm going to let the experts do it. Dan Seguin 17:10 For many years, David hydro Quebec's pursuit to electrify transportation has revolutionized the electric vehicle sector in the province while supporting provincial decarbonisation. It's safe to say that the electrification of transportation is a major growth driver for Hydro Quebec. What are some of the examples of synergies you develop to help drive the mobility sector? David Murray 17:39 Yeah, so I would say just, it's a major contributor on the growth, I would say, it's an important contributor, it's not that big for us. I mean, if you think about you know, having all the electricity, if you have 1 million vehicles, if you have multiple vehicles for let's say, 4 million, it'll be like whatever 12 with our so when you think that, you know, we can we can produce over 200 years. So that's, that's important, but it's not huge in terms of in terms of volumes. But quite, we're still pushing it, and we're pushing it, because it's gonna help reducing the a GHG emissions so. So for us, it's key that we're, we stay a leader and in Canada and in the Americas in terms of EV. So we have partnership with our governments, obviously, that giving you know subventions in order for getting the cars. We actually, in terms of working out and making it easy for customers, we actually acquired a company called the Axso. So we've launched a new software in last June, and actually you just enter the spec of your cars, and we'll tell you where to go with it and what's the best route? Where are the stations? And we actually, it was interesting, because once one, when we launched that, on Apple, actually, Apple called us to say what's going on with this software. So because we hit like number seven on the day or something. So pretty happy about this. So this is this is going to be key. And the next step is working. Obviously, we're you know, partnering is working with the Quebec government. So we're looking at next steps now to increase the number of recharge stations that we have throughout Quebec. So 2500 fast charging stations that we've announced by 2030. And we want to add on top of that, so we want to make sure that people feel secure about, about taking electric cars and going wherever they want. So that's, that's quite exciting. And obviously, the environment needs it. So as fast as we can do it, the better it will be. Dan Seguin 19:52 Let's move to renewables. It's clear that Hydro Quebec has become a world benchmark in the generation of clean, renewable energy. It also plays a key role in the development of battery technologies for electric vehicles, as well as electric power trains, Hydro Quebec saw EV's as an important source of revenue growth for its organization. And as early as 2012, you've been very active in deploying the country's first public charging network. Can you maybe talk to us about electric circuit? And what's next for it? David Murray 20:32 Yeah, so electric circuit, like I was saying, we're going to push a higher number of recharge stations and and increase, increase the confidence. What we're doing also, in terms of the, all the electricity, electrification of Quebec, we're pushing the boundaries also, where we believe that there are some roadblocks and for example, if you think about electrification of larger vehicles, like school buses, for example. And one thing that we're looking into is trying to remove the roadblock of infrastructure investments. It's all nice, because all you know, sometimes you go in the news, and oh, someone bought so many buses, electric, which is great. It's great stuff. But behind it, I mean, there's all the infrastructure, and this is this is a roadblock because it's major, major investments that these companies have to do today. It's very simple school buses, they just put deisel in, and they just go. But now if you go electric, the game is changing. So the stations needing to understand, you know, when do they recharge, what's the cycle, what's the best timing of it, not, you know, overkill, all the capex that you need in order to make it make it work. And this is somewhere that we're working on something that we're working on. So we want to put Hydro Quebec in the middle of that, working with different partners. And to ease all the capex that's required for these, these school buses, throughout the the Quebec province. And this is going to be good also, for public transportation. So you know, it's same thing for them. I mean, it's major, now they have these big garages. So when you think you know, the number of school buses you have in Ottawa, for example. I mean, imagine when you have to convert all this to electricity, I mean, the guys upstairs, they're going to look at this as demand, that's going to take a lot of capex, right how we're going to do this and in buying you the bus, you have to you have to have all the investment that's going to be done behind itself. So that's key. And this is something that we want to tackle, and we're working now, and we're working with the Quebec government, but we want to be an enabler into this. And that's what we that's where we're focused on which is, which is quite interesting. And last point, I would say is, we can't forget that I took it back as develop electric motors. So we had the subdivision company called Tmfour, which is in boucherville, right here, near Montreal on South Shore. And we've developed amazing electric motors and we actually sold a portion of the company. So we still own like 45% of the company, but we made a partnership with Dana and in the US. And Dana is like, you know, a large company that's been there for over 100 years. So they selected our motor and now we're deploying these borders around around the globe. So that's, that's really something that's actually pretty cool. So to have Hydro Quebec, participating around the globe, and electrifying, the large, it's for larger vehicles, but it's actually quite interesting. And I had the I had the pleasure to try one of the vehicles actually. So on in Shawenigen, we have, we have this place where we built two houses, where we wanted to push the boundaries about the energy transition. And we had our scientists from Research Institute and the guys go crazy, have fun, and we have one whole house that's decoys that can you know, do the comparison with the house that's fully equipped and, and it was interesting to see all they've done. So we have solar panels on the roof, we have battery in the basement. We have you know, all the technology, then IoT, and thermostat lights and everything that came you can imagine. And it's exciting to see. And in the living room, you have this major screen like TV screen, but you take a tablet just by opening up and then you have your whole network. And in the garage. You also have a device that can take your car electricity. So the we had the we have the Jeep Cherokee that we converted and we put our motor, a tm four engine in there. And I had the luxury to drive it around and park it in the garage and connect the car to the house. And then now the car was actually a provider for the house. So you can imagine now if there's an outage your car can become your battery. So it's quite interesting and then the scientists done you know all kinds of simulation as we were there with their CEO at the time, and all the management team, and we showed what we what we had, which led today to our first microgrid. So when Lac Megantic in Quebec had a big tragedy and a lot of people that died when the oil train derailed and so we had meetings with the mayor, fine. And we decided to spin that and having Lac Megantic like a futuristic city. And now we have, we are connecting. As we speak, we are connecting all these devices and all these houses that we've done. So we had to ensure when again, and now we have a copy paste version that are being built in Lac Megantic, of which we're going to be using all this technology. So quite exciting to see how we're turning it in now this is going to help in terms of electrification of the grid, actually, Dan Seguin 25:52 it's very interesting. Okay, now, hoping you can shed light here. With electrification comes more demand on capex electricity grid, particularly during peak periods. What is your outlook telling you about forecasted demand? And what kind of infrastructure will be required, if any, to support the electric future? David Murray 26:16 Yeah, so obviously, we've been looking at the possibilities, if we want to go and have Quebec at achieving the GHG emission, there's going to be a need for reducing for increasing the level of electricity consumption. So our distributor is looking into this on a yearly basis to see how that growth is coming. And we've seen that growth over the past couple of years. So definitely if we want to achieve all the possibilities, not only for Quebec, but also for the different provinces, as we are large exporter of our energy, so I think there's going to be a great opportunities for us. So we're looking at different aspects. But before we go, actually in saying, we're going to produce and add capacity, the number one priority is actually to find ways to reduce the consumption. So energy efficiency is key. And this is something that we're looking into. So we started, we launched a sub company that's called Hilo which is going behind the meter is actually erasing the demand on peak timings, so And actually it's rewards. So we're asking people to participate, and they have the options to participate or not, but actually, if they got the equipment, it's because they want to use it. And it gives us you know, opportunities when there's high demand an opportunity to reduce our consumption and not use for example, buy electricity from external means, or start fossil peakers in order to supply the demand because there are a couple of hours during peak times that we have, we have challenges so that it's only a few hours. And we've launched that. And it's been very, very successful, actually. So now we can erase. So you can imagine that it's all it's a winner because it prevents you to invest. So push investments. And obviously, if if you do invest, there's going to be an impact on your rates. So there's got to this thing gonna pay off. So good for good for the rates, because we're, we're pushing investments. Second is good for the environment, because we're not building lines through forests. And it's never popular. I mean, he prayed everybody wants electricity, but nobody wants it in their yard. So it's, it's always, you know, a catch 22 trying to explain that to people. So that's key number three is actually it's good for the customer base. Because imagine that the end the consumer is reducing his bill at the end. So you're gonna say, Well, yeah, of course, he's reducing his power. But there's ways that we're programming this where you can pre-heat your house couple of hours before the peak dining, and then it goes through the peak, and it helps up everything. And that peak is very expensive, like for all the reasons we were saying earlier, so this is win win win. And this is something that we want to push towards, in terms of investment. Going forward, obviously, we have we've built our first solar park, so we have two solar parks that we started, Wind is becoming also very competitive. So but wind and solar is for energy, not for power, then people don't always make the difference between the energy and power. So energy is the consumption you have every every second that you're going but the power is when everybody gets home at five o'clock and puts everything on that then put all the breakers on then the consuming everything spikes. So this we have the sustain not only the energy that goes with the power that goes in, and that's that's where HILO is gonna is going to be a key into making making the future and we have very interesting projects coming with HILO and so now we started With thermostat for example, we're but we're coming with, with other stuff that we've built in our house. And Sherwinagan, that's going to change the way of the building. And if we can change the way of consuming the electricity. Dan Seguin 30:11 Let's move on to the next question. hydro Quebec's road towards reconciliation has involved economic inclusion of the First Nations, and the creation of opportunities for current and future generations. wondering if you could talk to us about the importance of that relationship. And the 200 megawatt wind farm to be built in Quebec, Cote Nord region. David Murray 30:39 Yeah, so obviously, working together with the communities is key. And we've been doing so for for many, many years. So we've done many projects throughout the Quebec province. So this is not new we have, you know, over 40 programe, that we over the last decades that we've signed up with the, with the different communities. So this is not new for us, and is the same thing for the 200 megawatts on Cote Nord all up with project. So obviously, as we see, there's going to be a need for energy and power going forward. So these are very important projects that we we are pushing, pushing through and working with the communities on a day to day basis is certainly a key aspect to make it work. And we've done so on this projects. And you can see that the now we're we're we're ready to install the then the wind farm and to have the energy produced for us. So this is key for us. Dan Seguin 31:40 As stated earlier, David, we are in the midst of an energy transition. It encompasses transformation in power generation, transmission and distribution, as well as energy consumption habits worldwide. How is Hydro Quebec planning to seize growth opportunities in the province and beyond Canada's borders, like the power agreement in Massachusetts? What is again, the ultimate goal and vision? David Murray 32:10 So when we started the plan a couple years ago, we had surpluses, you know, in the, in all the dams that we had, and we had the Romaine, the four dams in the Romaine river that was being built, and which was 1500 megawatts, obviously, when when we started if you go back couple years ago, we were seeing a huge growth in Quebec. This is why we had to build Romaine and that growth income as as timely as as we're expecting. So it gave us an opportunity to use that electricity and to share it with with our neighbors, which was we've done year over year, we're exporting about roughly 30 kilowatt hour of electricity, which is quite significant. And this is something that we're doing to you know, New Brunswick, Ontario, obviously, all the different states around us and north northeast. So this is this is key. So for us, it's great opportunity, it brings back money, you know, in the Quebec province obviously, but it also helps the different states and provinces to reduce their GHG emissions. So for us, this is quite an important deal for us as it It reduces our surplus brings back money, so it's good for the balance, commercial balance and the Quebec province and contributes to helping the government in terms of profitability, and this is money that goes back into the Quebec province. So these are projects that are key and in in making the GHG emission and bringing good profitability for the Quebec province. So very, very important for us. Dan Seguin 33:49 Moving on, what role does energy storage play in your deployment and supply of renewable energy? David Murray 33:58 Yeah, energy storage is is also very exciting. So we're talking about the Innovation Development so we've been working on a battery for the past couple years, I would say a mega watt hour battery so large size battery I would say if you can have an image it's like a container size that goes on a truck or so and these batteries are going to become so important. Because again, when you place these batteries at the right place in network, reduce congestion and it pushes the same logic, it pushes some investments that you need to do second aspect it's sometimes you have reserves on mine and you can remove that reserve also with with the battery, so batteries will become an important tool I would say as much as a transformer, for example, our power line so become the base into the grid of the future or the design grid of the future and So we have our own battery, which is as it's a, its own recipe, which we believe is safer than any battery that can exist, where it's so safe in our mind that we will actually put it on the roof of Hydro Quebec, in early 2022 you know, with solar panels and capture electricity, and you're never going to see this, if you go on the field, and you see these batteries that are existing, they're huge with, like, 4 backup systems, and so many protections, and you know, it's very heavy and very costly. So for us, we believe that our technology is going to become more and more present, because of its particularity of being safe. So it will be key. And you can see now, you know, all the vendors going out on the market. I mean, there's a there are a lot now asking for storage applications of which we've launched this is why we've launched another sub company. So we have a few but it's called EVLO. And this is a, this is actually a sub company that we want to use for our own network. So we've already deployed some in the on the Quebec network. But we've also won our first contract outside now. So we were installing as we speak in France right now, I would interject as a partner, so this is going to become bigger and bigger for us. Dan Seguin 36:29 Okay, I'm wondering if you could now expand on opportunities and or challenges the pandemic brought to the forefront for Hydro Quebec? Has there been an impact on export and growth or any other surprises? David Murray 36:47 Yeah, obviously, we had, like, everybody, it was a tough year. And we, we've, we've faced some reductions of volume, because obviously, when companies, you know, are stopping their production and everything, there is an impact. So we've seen a slight reduction on the company side and industrial side, they would say, residential will ramp up, obviously, because everybody's working from home so it transferred, but it's not the same so, they had an impact on, you know, bad credit, like any company, so we've done, it's roughly $90 million of impact that we had. So you know, people are having a hard time to pay their bills and everything. So we were present to try to help on that aspect. So we had to look at payment terms, also, we help them, you know, helping out payment terms, and we will also reduce our payment terms on our side. So, you know, to bring cash faster to the other company. So with the cash to cash cycle is a bit longer, but it was good for everybody. So we've done it for the community and different companies, and the different people in the Quebec province. The opportunities? Well, we've looked at the you know, resilience and be more independent with with more and more important on the greenhouse production, I would say. So this is where when we launched an initiative to reduce the rates on on greenhouse production in Quebec province, so the which is great. So we give a big, big reduction for people to produce, you know, local vegetables and fruits, which was, which was actually key. This is an example of, you know, decision that we've looked at to help out. And the other aspect, I would say, is for different projects that we're having, so for example, we've announced a major revamp of our dams, for example, and we re-questioned the bids that we had, and we have some other major suppliers to say, give it to give us different options, and what would be the cost if they would do for example, engineering in Quebec, instead of instead of being done outside outside the country. And we've made some changes in some some of the plans that we have based on that, either it was, you know, some engineering was done in Quebec or in Canada, then it was it was a better deal for us at the time to stimulate and give more work and towards the Quebec and Canada. And in terms of selection. So this is like the stuff that we've done. And now it creates a, you know, different mindset internally. And obviously we have we still have the same tendency to look into the different projects as we speak. Dan Seguin 39:30 In addition to seizing growth opportunities in Quebec and beyond, increasing exports and introducing energy efficiency initiatives like HILO, Hydro Quebec, residential rates are the lowest in North America. And business rates are always ranking among the most competitive on the continent. How have you successfully struck this balance? David Murray 39:55 Well, the balance obviously we've looked, again, the base that was done In the last couple of years was asked to carry. So finding the ways to keep the rates as low as possible is, is something internally that we're making a large focus has been a lot of changes that happened in Hydro Quebec and the last couple of years. So sometimes, I mean, I always say that there's two major transition at Hydro Quebec that we live right now. The first one is the energy transition, the second one is within Hydro Quebec's wall. So all the synergy that has been done in the efficiency that has been done, bringing lean thinking in the way we're doing business. So, you know, we have over 2600 cells of lean right now a cell would be, you know, employing employees, with their, with their managers and up in the office. So, where we have stand up meetings, and we have six pillars, and we're looking at, you know, health and safety and productivity and employee in ward issues and raising issues to the next level, if it's not done and bring it back in the next day. So a lot of work that has been done, and we can't keep take that for granted. And, but it's been, it's been a huge transformation that happened. And this, this has made the significant changes and helping out in keeping our rates down. So year over year, you know, you're facing up salary increase, you're facing up, you know, material buy purchasing increase. So you have to balance this out. And this is our way to to do to do differently. And the second thing is innovation, obviously, still trying new ways, you know, where we were talking about drones and all these technologies, obviously, they're they're helping out in making that bounce. And for us, it's, it's very important that we keep these rates down, we're happy. We're proud, and we want to, we want to keep it this way. So it's good for people in Quebec, it's bringing opportunities for businesses to come and install themselves in Quebec for not only the rate but also because it's green. So we have more and more demand, for example, data centers, for example. So these are great opportunities for Quebec, and it creates at the same time, important, you know, very good job in technology. So this is something that we, we push and we want to keep going. Dan Seguin 42:15 Okay. Finally, the rise in digital technologies has brought sweeping changes in how we all live. As we know, Millennials are now North America's largest cohort. They have now overtaken boomers as the largest population group in North America. These digital natives grew up with chatbots, smart speakers and smartphones. With that in mind, how has Hydro Quebec engaged with this generation? Where do you see the greatest opportunities for Hydro Quebec? David Murray 42:50 Yeah, it's a major shift. And I live it at home to, so I have a millennials and I have a younger generation pushing. So she calls me that the boomer, I keep telling, I'm not a boomer, but I guess I'm acting like a boomer, I don't know. But I guess it is important to, to think differently, and to bring them on board, without forgetting the base without forgetting what the boomer, our generation is done fast, I think, you know, it's an evolution. And there's nothing good or bad, it's always the mixture of things that makes it better. But obviously, we have to think differently, because it's a different, you know, technology is all over the place, whether the younger generation, so there's been a lot of changes in to our communication team. This team is quite amazing. Keeping connection, through media, web, you name it, Facebook, and all these new software that see that that's where my daughter's gonna say, I'm an old generation, because I named Facebook and Facebook is not for us, but it is what it is Snapchat and all this stuff. But so we've done a lot to keep the connections. Our social media team is actually amazing. So we've done quite an impression, sometimes answering some of the questions answering some of the tough questions were sometimes being criticized, but bringing a twist, which is attracting the younger generation and we're getting more and more popular and in some of these tweaks that's happening on the web. So we've had it also added two youtubers into our company. So two guys trying to explain to the younger generation, you know, how electricity works and I was saying about connecting the old and the future. It is important because nobody really understands how electricity is produced. They just put the switch on and you know, they believe it's happening from from the sky, I guess. So, you know, to make them remember that the how This was built in the past sort of pioneers has provided us that luxury that we have here in Quebec. So this is, this is actually very, very interesting to see and having these young guys through YouTube, explain to them, you know, how it works and how electricity is produced so to bring the connection between the the old world and the New World, I would say that. And the rest, like I was saying, bringing them together with the social, we have over 20 social media accounts that the team is working on, and trying to connect the new generation and we have them in-house as they're coming in house in DC, what's going on there, they're helping out the old, older generation like me to connect with the younger generation and obviously, pushes the boundaries. And it's great, because they're also pushing us into different direction, which is, which is key because at the end, you know, they want to come and work for a company that's innovative. And that's, you know, to the level of what they're expecting this we have to we have to adapt. Dan Seguin 46:00 Okay, David, are you ready to close us off with some rapid fire questions? David Murray 46:07 Anything - That's good. Dan Seguin 46:09 What is your favorite word? David Murray 46:12 efficiency. Dan Seguin 46:13 What is your ideal electric vision for Hydro Quebec's future? David Murray 46:20 Electric vision is also is everything that's energy transition. IoT, behind the meters efficient energy efficiency, I would say, Dan Seguin 46:30 what is the one thing you can't live without? David Murray 46:34 My phone Dan Seguin 46:35 What habit or hobby? Have you picked up during a shelter in place? David Murray 46:41 You know, this is quite interesting. I guess the older generation. Two things. Number one is vinyl record. So I don't know for reasons I started to go back on vinyl. And so and once in a while a good old way of going too easy. Now, you know, it just click and it comes from the cloud. But just to get up and and put the vinyl and you know, after like five minutes, it's done. You got to stand up and go, but I guess it's my old age can kick in. So that's number one. And number two is actually, you know, tastes from the past. So my, my spouse was asking me what I wanted for Christmas. And I said I want a Atari 2600. And she said what? You mean? You mean the PlayStation five? Right? I said no, no, I want Atari 2600. She's where the hell do I buy this? Five? No, it just was just fine. And she did. So now just going back in time. And so I don't know. I guess pandemic has brought us back to our roots and to the some of the basics so I don't know, must make me feel comfortable to play pitfall I guess during Christmas, I'll have never played since but it's okay. I have it if I want to play it. And it's mine told everybody Don't touch it. Don't break it. Dan Seguin 48:03 Now, if you could have one superpower, what would it be? David Murray 48:10 Fly? I guess it goes faster. The typical, you know, I've asked that question. Everybody breaks, it breaks, it breaks the mold. And by saying I want to cure all illness. And then nobody else can speak after that. So that would be probably the political answer. But fly is my answer. Dan Seguin 48:24 And David, if you could turn back time, and talk to your 18 year old self? What would you tell him? David Murray 48:32 Don't change anything. Just don't change anything. Dan Seguin 48:38 And lastly, what do you currently find most interesting about public life? David Murray 48:46 Most Interesting? I'll be honest, like and public life is actually sometimes the difficulty of media I would say. So. You know, I took it back is like 13 times in the papers every day, and sometimes not the way for for for other reasons than good reasons. I would say not all the time. But it's a I would say that's probably the thing that's after five years in the industry when you coming from a private company. You're coming public, obviously, you know what, well, I didn't know what to expect. Everybody told me, but it is what it is. And it's, it's okay. I mean, it's part of it's part of the business. Dan Seguin 49:26 Well, David, we've reached the end of another episode of The think energy podcasts. Thank you so much for joining me today and I hope you had a lot of fun. Cheers, my friend. Thank you for joining us today. I truly hope you enjoyed this episode of The think energy podcast. For past episodes, make sure you visit our website hydroottawa.com/podcast. Lastly, if you found value in this podcast, be sure to subscribe. Anyway, this podcast is a wrap. Cheers, everyone.
Brain Tails, Kink B&B, and Hydroelectricity. A Cannasexual Sensualist joins the show to play an epic game of Would You Rather. We touch on her exploration of non-monogamy while definitely not touching that incredibly old vibrator. I really hope she sends me a Christmas card this year…
As electric vehicles (EVs) earn the spotlight as an impactful step towards environmental sustainability, what can municipalities, electric utilities and oil companies do to support a true EV movement in Canada? Jim Pegg, Director of Infrastructure Product and Service at Envari Energy Solutions, shares his expertise on the infrastructure (i.e. charging stations) and services (i.e. electrical supply) that will be necessary to encourage EV adoption while ensuring a smooth transition. Related Content & Links: Websites: Envari - https://www.envari.com/ Hydro Ottawa - https://hydroottawa.com/ Social media: Twitter: @Envari LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/envari/ Transcript: Dan Seguin 00:43 Hey, everyone, welcome back. This is the ThinkEnergy podcast. According to the US Department of Energy, electric cars can be traced back to the early 1800s while horses and buggies were still the primary mode of transportation, inventors in Hungary, the Netherlands, and the US were creating some of the first small scale electric cars between 1828 and 1835. By the turn of the century, in early 1900s, electric vehicles accounted for a third of all vehicles on the road in the US. So what happened? Now, another century later, electricity is finally on track to become the fuel of the future that will move both people and goods sustainably and environmentally around the country. And nationwide, EV fast charging network was only introduced in December of 2019 by Petro Canada. It consisted of a network that boasts 51 fast chargers at their stations as far east as Halifax, Nova Scotia, and as far west as Victoria, British Columbia. EV drivers now have access to stations located all along the Trans-Canada highway, making a coast to coast track achievable. Other major players are getting into the game with Canadian tire committing to 300 charging stations spread over 90 locations across Canada. Wow. So no more range anxiety? This is great news because consumers rank not having enough accessible charging stations as a third more serious barrier to an EV purchase, behind price and long range travel. Despite this obstacle, EV sales have continued to rise. But it's clear that to support that growth, we need to roll out charging stations at municipal, provincial and federal levels is the key to bolster rates of EV adoption. More EV charging infrastructure in urban and rural areas? Will better infrastructure increased consumer confidence in electrical vehicles. From a local perspective, what are Canadian municipalities doing to advance their local infrastructure to successfully accommodate EV charging networks? Here's today's big question. Are electric utilities and oil company’s two industries in unique positions to help build a true EV movement in Canada? The former controls electricity distribution networks in the province and municipalities while the latter already operates strategically located fuel stations for internal combustion vehicles. Joining me today is a very special guest, Jim Pegg, Director of infrastructure products and services at Envari energy solutions, who is here to answer these big and small EV questions for us. Jim, can you tell us a bit about Envari and your role specifically, as it relates to electric vehicles and EV infrastructure and charging stations? Second, as an energy management company, can you expand on your strategic position to catalyze this shift to electric mobility? Jim Pegg 04:25 Essentially, Envari is a diversified energy solutions company. We're a team of engineers’ project managers that problem solve and help businesses and governments implement innovative electrical, mechanical lighting-related projects. As a competitive affiliate of Hydro Ottawa, we're trusted experts in energy efficiency, sustainability, as well as asset management. Our clients’ needs take center stage for us, and we're committed we're very committed to our customer success. Our goal is to help them save energy, you know, reduce emissions and identify areas of poor performance as a good example. Before they have a chance to erode essentially, their bottom line, we're trying to help them avoid those situations. We deliver energy projects from start to finish. So we're concept to commissioning type organization. We provide expert advice, we leverage our buying power, complementing and supplementing our projects team. In terms of their ability to deliver outstanding results and performance results, I'd say we're recognized in the industry for always protecting our customers’ best interests, and adhering to the highest standards of quality and reliability. And obviously, very importantly, safety. Dan Seguin 05:43 Thanks. Studies show that public charging will be even more important in the near future, particularly in the next decade. What strategies should utilities and municipalities be looking to adopt to ensure we're prepared? Jim Pegg 06:01 Well, I mean, that's a great question. And I think we very much agree that public charging is becoming more and more common right across North America, we sit on various committees, and we see this discussion is really starting to catch fire. Example, you know, now there was more than 1000 public charging stations over in BC I think. And, you know, people are using them for various types of experiences, whether it's just popping out to the mall or range extending, because they want to head out to the cottage or go for a road trip, especially with COVID going on, people are getting a lot more in country traveling. And, and so it's certainly becoming more and more of a topic. I'd say with utilities, Dan, it's all about capacity, which typically isn't an issue for something like a level two charger, but certainly becomes a big part of the conversation for level three fast chargers, which can draw significantly more power, you know, typically a level three, fast charger, you know, you get into the 50 kilowatt range, but they're obviously getting bigger and bigger and faster and faster. also important to note that car technology out there is changing too, right? Different electric vehicles can accept that different charge at different rates. So you might plug in one vehicle to a charger, and it takes a certain amount of time to charge and another vehicle might take a different amount of time to charge. So for utilities, again, they're looking at standards, you know, looking at related to charger connections, details, like your metering requirements, and how they can work with different vendors and manufacturers to do things as simple as mounting the meter to an actual public charging station, versus having to have a separate, you know, installation post or something like that, those little details will actually go a long way with really helping to enable that technology to get out there and, and not run into those types of roadblocks. I say for the longer term impact of charging, it's going to become more of a key system planning piece. So working to understand that the penetration of these chargers, and that related infrastructure. The impacts of large fleets converting to electric vehicles is going to be a big, big discussion point as well, you know, municipalities, I think all across North America are looking at their fleets. And if converting to electric makes sense to them, as you know, a lot of places that have declared climate emergencies. And a big way to support the effort to reduce emissions, obviously, is converting to electric vehicles and to do so that infrastructure becomes a key part of that play. So I think those are big parts of the conversation for utilities, other technologies are starting to come into play like energy storage, energy storage acts a lot like a distributed energy resource. So over the last 10 or 15 years, utilities have been really making a big shift to having more distributed generation in their system versus the sort of large generation pumping in I've got generation all over the place. Well, batteries and chargers come into that situation not to and it's more deemed as an energy resource facility is what they would call it now because of battery can operate a lot like a like a generator. So utilities are having to look at all these different factors and take those into consideration with connection processes, and working with customers to try and make it as simple as possible for the customer. Because at the end of the day, there can be some very technical pieces to it, you know, you can always dive into the weeds of this stuff. But our goal is to make these chargers available to the public and to make these things accessible, so that so that we can get this infrastructure in place. So I think utilities have certainly started the conversation and are working to go a long way with trying to help streamline those processes. Municipalities are a big part of that as well. They're doing a great job. We've spoken with many families that are taking a real good hard look at their fleets as well as public charging offerings. And I think a big part of what municipalities are doing is trying to look at standards for, you know, understanding optimal locations for, for EV chargers for the public what makes sense, as well as working with their local utility that was a huge part of the discussion, having those early conversations, because you want to avoid things that, you know, one group may know is a roadblock. And they might say one site is better than another. And you can really avoid going too far down a trail that has a dead end to it, if you have that conversation early. And I think I know here in Ottawa, specifically the utilities do an excellent job of, of being part of that conversation and Envari is, is well positioned to support those conversations as well. So those are, those are some of the big things. Another big thing that municipalities are trying to do is look at their fleet turnover. So you know, sort of the natural expiration date of their different fleets. So if you look at transit fleets, or, or even, you know, things like bylaw type fleets or utility type vehicles, things like that, where there is a natural life expectancy to those vehicles, the best time to convert it to an electric vehicle is when that asset is due for replacement. Rather than replacing it early and sort of leaving an asset stranded, you can take advantage of that replacement cycle and sort of naturally come up with a plan that sort of fits in in terms of replacing those vehicles. And then along with that, you can then do sort of a bit of a work back plan to say, Okay, if I'm going to have this many electric vehicles come into my system at this point in time, I need to have the infrastructure that's going to support that. And that's where that's where the planning all the work comes into place and to getting those things set up. Dan Seguin 11:49 Okay. Great segue here. Now, most are familiar with level one, level two chargers, as most are applicable for homes and workplaces. But when time matters, like on a highway or public parking lots, a level three charger, also known as a direct current fast charger may be better suited, wondering if you could explain the differences and their impact on the grid? Jim Pegg 12:18 Sure, I can take a stab at that for sure. So, you know, this is a question that comes up quite often. And I think it's, it's a good one to ask. So absolutely a level one charger is essentially a wall outlet, 120 volt system, what people would find in our house we could plug your coffeemaker into. And then if you get into the level two world level two chargers a little bit faster. So it's a bit more power output. And you know, with a level one charger, you might be in eight to 12 hours to essentially trickle charge that battery with a level two charger, you've got a bit more power, a bit more flow behind that electricity pushing into the car. And you can charge your car and more of the four hour range or in some cases three and a half to four hours. Again, cars provide a bit of variance there, that I would relate to more of a 240 volt system. So if someone's thinking, you know, an electric baseboard heater in your house has 240 volts, it's got a bit more power to it. That's kind of the idea behind an electric vehicle level two charger, when you get into a level three charger, there's a bit of a range there. So of level three chargers sort of started out as the 50 kilowatt charger. And that became sort of the most common level three charger. In that case, you're getting into a much more power, higher voltages in air essentially, again, same idea as the one to two step, it's a much bigger step to the level three, and you're pushing that power into the vehicles quite a bit faster. And the power requirements are higher. Level three chargers have a range, you know, there's 50 kilowatts, and I've seen them up to 150 kilowatts. And for fleet charging, it goes up and up and up from there. And that becomes specific to the type of vehicle you have and what you're trying to charge in terms of what power it can accept. From the grid standpoint and the distribution system. It's certainly a topic that matters. I've say the level two chargers are certainly a key topic for utilities, because your distribution transformers in your subdivisions. Those have a limit to them. So as there's higher and higher penetration of electric vehicles, those distribution transformers is going to start to see more and more load. And I know utilities, especially I can say for certain Hydro Ottawa. They're closely looking at that trend, looking at what the uptake in electric vehicles will be looking at the subdivisions that are starting to pick up with more and more electric vehicles and trying to make sure that they're planning ahead for what that that transformation capacity needs to be to support that. There's also some education there that the utility can use to support the public in terms of when they charge their vehicles, the optimum time to charge the vehicle to have a less of an impact on the grid. So all those different factors come into place. With a level three charger, you're certainly in a situation of more power, you might be in a situation where you're having a dedicated service or having to increase your service. Level three charges, you'd see it places more like a mall, or commercial spaces, places where people might travel to, you know, along the highways, you might have a rest stop with a level three charger, those have obviously the higher power requirement because people are looking to charge their vehicles faster, they want the gas station experience, they want to show up, fill up the car, grab their coffee, and a doughnut, whatever it is, they're going to, you know, have their seven minute stretch and hop back in the car and off they go to wherever it is they're going, they don't want, you know, to have stopping charging being a big destination of a trip, right. And so there's that element to it. And as the population of electric vehicles grows and grows, I think you'll see that become more and more of a relevant topic - in terms of the fast charger. So utilities are certainly looking at the impact of those higher capacity chargers. And where that can be put onto the grid. Because as you know, Dan, the distribution system has its limits to the infrastructure that was built so many years ago didn't necessarily have that spare capacity on the system for such a quick increase in load to it. So utilities are taking a good hard look at where they need to make their investments and create this as a key input to their planning cycles for mid short and long term planning for capacity and supply. Dan Seguin 16:35 Okay, so the business case for a charging station at home is fairly straightforward. But making a business case for fast chargers is a bit more challenging as it involves higher upfront capital and higher operating costs. Can you walk me through an assessment? A business case, if you want, for a large organization that wishes to install fast chargers? For argument's sake, like you were just talking about the large shopping center, looking for three fast chargers? What's the ROI? What's the benefit? How do they look at that? Jim Pegg 17:16 Sure. And it's a great topic. And it's a question that many people ask because it's a more difficult one. As you can imagine that level three charger that fast charger has a significantly higher upfront capital costs than like a level two charger but it is the type of charger that people are looking more and more for at those places, as you say like shopping malls and shopping centers. In terms of the business case, you have to sort of take a multi-faceted approach and almost layer on the benefits. Because we're early into the I'd say the change to electric vehicles, you'll see that business case gets stronger and stronger each year. The more vehicles are out there, the more this business case will strengthen I'll tell you why. In my opinion, there are a few benefits one is with an electric vehicle charger at your mall as an example. People can have those electric vehicle chargers essentially called Smart chargers, they're part of a network they're part of a system people can go into their app and say you know does this mall I can literally zoom in on a map and see Is there an electric vehicle charger at this mall. And if there is that becomes the mall that they decide to go to, if there's multiple malls and only a couple of them have the chargers and they're driving an electric vehicle, they're going to go the safe bet and pick the one that has that charger in case they want to get some extra charge while they're in doing their shopping. So it becomes a bit of a marketing piece on that side of things. There's also the you know the different organizations that have the natural desire to have a branding around being green and supportive of the shift to electric vehicles. So that element is there but obviously that one's harder to tie to the bottom line dollars. This is why I say the front capital cost is the trickiest part. With chargers level two chargers and the fast chargers you can actually charge money for people charging and there are different rates for that. Now, obviously people get into electric vehicles for a few different reasons. One is obviously better for the environment, which is just the main. And the other side of it is their own personal pocketbook, right not spending the dollars on filling up the gas station they can get much further on their dollar. And so they don't want to go to a place and have really high cost for that that charge that fill up. So you can get some return from charging for fast charging and for level two charging. But it won't necessarily show you the payback in any kind of a short timeframe that you're looking for. So the good news is that's where we've seen the government jump in. So we've seen historically the federal government, the provincial government put out different programs to support the installation, that upfront capital cost of these different infrastructure pieces and chargers, and that makes a big difference. One of the things Envari is great at and this is all due to our relationships, I'd say with these different organizations is that we have a good handle on different funding mechanisms that are out there in different ways to enable that business case to make more sense, from strictly a financial standpoint. But I'd say that business case is going to evolve with time. You know, when everyone at that shopping center shows up with an electric vehicle, and there's a huge demand for charge, your supply and demand curve is going to kick in, you'll have people charging constantly and the payback period will be much shorter on that upfront capital cost. But for the early adopter, it's important to try and take think take advantage of those funding mechanisms that are out there. Dan Seguin 20:54 We know that at least 30% of Canadians live in multi-unit residential buildings today, and that the number is not likely to decline. Increasingly, residential real estate is moving toward multi-tenant construction. In Canada, two out of three homes built today are multifamily. In Ontario alone, nearly 700,000 households live in condos. Can you talk to me about solutions for Canadians discouraged from buying EVs? Because they have no easy means of charging them? Either in condominiums apartment buildings, or in their home at that like a driveway or garage? What can they do? And what solutions is Envari offering? Jim Pegg 21:44 Sure, that's another great question. So I would say there are a few things to note, I think there's lots of different policy changes and things like that taking place at a provincial level. And in some cases, federal levels to support some of these some of these areas of concern. So for example, in the multi-unit residential condo type building, there's legislation that now helps support a condo owner that wants to install electric vehicle in their building, and those condos and a condo boards are then sort of put to task to go out and find a solution that meets the needs of that tenant. And once one steps forward, you know, you might get more and more stuff for but at that point, you kind of need to put together a plan Envari helps, works hard to help support that in the sense that one of the things we offer something called an EVRA, we call it an electric vehicle readiness assessment. And we essentially use that tool to help an organization or building or property plan out their EV infrastructure. So multi-unit residential is a great example of this, where if you do it on an ad hoc approach, where you know, each time someone comes along, you've put in the effort to build out the infrastructure for them to put in that electric vehicle charging station versus a planned approach where you've come up with a holistic plan for all of your spots, not necessarily to build it all at once. But to sort of have that roadmap of what it will eventually look like. There's many different ways you can take advantage to things like existing capacity in your building. And, and really optimize that so that as people come along, it kind of turns into a bit of an easy button so that people can get a charger installed and move forward and the condo board and a condo group have met their obligations. And a customer's a nice sort of easy setup as they should expect, right? So we're seeing more and more organizations reach out to us to support them on that. And certainly one of our areas of expertise is looking at all the available options and optimizing the different scenarios. So there are a few good things there. I think no matter what type of building the EV owners live in Envari is here to help right so we evaluate the situation a case by case basis, try our best to provide a feasible charging solution for EV owners living in multi residential buildings. Again, you know, we talked about the different solutions there. But that becomes a big part of the conversation. The approach is similar with you know, with large shopping centers, we go in and do a bit of an assessment to say what are your options here without having to take on huge extra costs. Because if you go down one path versus another, there can be significant differences in the cost implications, all related to the available capacity and your different options, even the charger types that you select. One of the things Envari prides itself on is somewhat is being non committed, I'd say to two different manufacturers in the sense that we're technology agnostic, we provide different solutions to the customer. We give them different options and let the customer choose what they feel best fits them. Obviously backed up by our different recommendations and experience that we've seen. So we're always trying to find the right fit for that particular organization. It's certainly not a certainly not a one size fits all type of a scenario. You have, you have another part of that, which is, you know, people that have no driveways, or no space to park at home. That's where the municipalities and cities and towns and so on are really a big part of that conversation. I'm very happy to say here in Ottawa, that is certainly on their minds, I think the phrase that's used for that type of situation as someone whose garage orphaned in the sense that they don't have somewhere they can plug in overnight, and charge their car, and they need to rely on a public charging station. So while municipalities are looking for that location to put their public charging station, it's not just all about putting a public charging station in a busy commercial area, they're also taking into account different areas of town that might be more dense that don't have as many driveways. But there is a population of people there that need access to that type of service. So they're taking all those things into consideration when selecting sites, which takes us back to our earlier conversation about what municipalities are doing and standards. So the City of Ottawa is a good example are very forward thinking in that sense and doing a great job at really looking at those different factors to try and make sure they're meeting the needs of all their all their constituents in the city here. All the residents. Dan Seguin 26:38 Okay, Jim, let's move on. Actually, let's expand on municipalities. Studies show that transportation accounts for 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions. So there's a huge cost and environmental benefit for municipalities to move to electric. In Ottawa, it's actually quite a bit higher, where their transportation sector accounts for 44% of the city's GHG emissions. In your opinion, what steps should municipalities take to meet their various infrastructure requirements to electrify their fleets and provide public charging requirements? How is Envari helping municipalities meet their goals? I think you touched on that a bit, but maybe expand a bit. Jim Pegg 27:28 Yeah, no, sounds good. I think so obviously, greenhouse gas emissions can be greatly reduced by electrifying you know, bus fleets, providing public charging stations, increasing the number of electric vehicles on the road. Regarding bus fleet electrification, as chargers, for battery electric buses take a significantly higher amount of power. There are very large batteries on those buses. And you also don't want to have those buses sitting there for a long time taking a long time to charge or you want them as out on the road servicing the public. So they do take that that higher power compared with, you know, car charging or things like that. So the existing electrical capacity at transit agency, bus depots is likely to be likely not to have been designed for a shift to full electrification of their of their fleets, if you look at bus fleets as an example. So to build the electrical infrastructure, I would say municipalities and I think a lot of this is happening, municipalities are working closely with their local distribution companies, as well as organizations like Envari, to try and put together what that that roadmap looks like of going from a of a base load of x getting up to, you know, a base load that which is significantly higher. So that that can involve, you know, distribution, build outs, capacity changes, service changes. And those different stakeholders that need to look at the different options that are out there as well in terms of, you know, putting together things like large energy storage, in line with their different optimizations, that power and that, that supply of power. So there's, there's, again, there's no one size fits all, but I think I think the conversation needs to start early. There needs to be a lot of information sharing. I know municipalities also do a pretty good job of sharing their experiences with each other and I can say Envari is also very active in the in the fleet communication, the fleet world I would say in terms of having active communication with different organizations that are also working hard to convert their fleets and I think we're all learning from each other as that process goes on, and I think that's the best way to do it. I mean, you've got a situation where we're, we're trying to make some big changes that are really going to support the environment. And those big changes can have huge, long lasting impacts on our communities. But it's going to take, it's going to take many minds to put those pieces together, you know, Envari is lucky in the sense that we're really well positioned being the affiliate of the utility, we've got a lot of great utility knowledge. And at the same time, we've got a lot of great behind the meter. Customer side knowledge. And so we're somewhat well positioned to have the conversations in both directions, I would say, and, and help bring those parties together in some cases to expand on that. We're very much active supporters, believers in the shift to electric mobility, the electrification of transportation, you know, again, as I said earlier, we offer services such as EVRAs, EV charger rentals and sales and also operate and maintain type services related to electric vehicle charging. And there's other pieces that come into this whole thing, right, as soon as you're talking electric vehicles and supply capacity, things like that, you need to you need to take a step back and take a look at your total energy usage, maybe at a different at a certain facility or at a site, again, with one of the great benefits we have at Envari is having that that long lasting, that long history of, of energy management's and looking at different energy sources and supplies and ways to maximize energy and buildings. So we have our buildings division, which really looks at optimizing and making a building more energy efficient. And our lighting group, which really looks at the lighting side of energy efficiency. When you pull all those pieces together, you can really optimize how much capacity you really have available, you can really optimize what you're planning for it is, but it certainly takes looking at lots of different angles. Because the amount of investment you're going to put in, you want to make sure you're leveraging that investment as much as you can. And getting multiple uses of that investment. Dan Seguin 31:57 On investments. I think in my view, the price of DC charging solutions has dropped while AC charging stations to the level of one and twos, at least that 50 kilowatts have been more popular. They've started to lose ground to the DC fast charging stations. What impact will this trend have on utility transformers? I think you touched on that earlier. Also, will this movement require skilled in-house Energy specialist and more engineers? Jim Pegg 32:28 Yeah. So again, another great question. I'd say the quick answer is, it will have an impact as one would expect, you know, larger chargers means larger power draw, in turn is going to be more demand on the utility. And we talked a little bit of demand on the wire side of the utility. But upstream of those wires, you get into the utilities, power transformers and their substations. And those substations have capacity limits as well. So typically, for a level three charger, you know, a detailed site specific design is required. Working hand in hand with engineers and the local utility to come up with what that solution looks like that typically customized solution. From the utilities perspective, this will also start to have an impact on utilities, as we said, their substation, transformers, everything, even the equipment on that line in terms of the different ratings of the equipment and so on, the more power that's at play, and the more power in the system, the more requirements there are to make that system operate in a reliable and safe manner. Charging through the day. But also after hours can mean the normal cooling curve of a power transformer changes. So the more electric vehicle fleet charging, for example, in high voltage DC, excuse me fast charging. If some of that's happening at night, you're going to really be putting load on those Transformers that historically wouldn't have seen much load through the night people are sleeping. Those transformers are very much designed to have a cooling cycle to them, that cooling cycles is going to change. So I know there's a lot of people looking at those impacts to see if they're if they are going to be a negative impact or not. And if there needs to be changes to those assets moving forward in terms of understanding the impacts of sort of a more high base load 24 hours a day type situation. I would say that's those are some of the big the big pieces that are being looked at. Dan Seguin 34:30 Okay. I'd like to go back to the investment here. We're talking about significant investments for companies and municipalities. What kind of industry experience does Envari have to assist those organizations to navigate their way through the design and scaling of an EV charging program, whether it's residential, commercial fleet, and multi residential units? I think you alluded to that earlier, but maybe you can do a deeper dive. Jim Pegg 34:59 Yeah, sure. So I think, you know, as we did talk a little bit earlier, Envari is uniquely positioned, we do have a deep understanding of the distribution system, you know, members of our staff came right from the utility with many years of experience their various roles, and as well as the customer side, because I mean that that's our business is enabling our customer success. So with that, we're able to walk projects through rate from start to finish looking at all the short and long term impacts, as they relate to both the customer as well as the utility. And understanding the utility side of it really helps us understand where there will be pushback, or being better prepared to support the utilities questions, because the utility at the end of the day has a big responsibility as well, they're responsible to all the customers on the system to make sure the system is reliable. And if you know, for certain load comes onto the system, that's going to have a negative impact on the rest of the system utility has a responsibility to make sure that that that issue is addressed because you can't have one customer come on and cause poor reliability or issues for other parts of the system. And you know, outside of normal electric or normal, normal work that goes on there's new development, there's construction intensification in cities and things like that, those also take electrical supply. So there's going to be more and more competing priorities for electrical supply. And it Envari is in a really good position to have those conversations and understand where the optimal locations may be for things like large fleets, charging and, and that type of thing. So I would say that that supports quite a bit, as well as some other expertise that I talked about earlier, you know, looking at something like an electrical vault. Envari has a great amount of experience and understanding of buildings electrical vault, which is a key part of the puzzle for electric vehicle charging, that’s sort of the area that tells you how much available capacity you have to actually install electric vehicle chargers. And optimizing that because an electrical vault can be an expensive asset. So you want to try and optimize your building's energy usage to reduce the load on that vault so that you can then leverage that spare capacity to install electric vehicle chargers before having to upgrade. But then if you do need to upgrade, the good news is there's ways to optimize the expense of those upgrades, and to work with your utility. And there's different ways you can avoid future costs too. And some of the scenarios that we're able to, to map out for customers. So, again, I think I said before this, there's no one size fits all. And our approach of having a technology agnostic approach really helps us to create a solution that fits well for each particular customer. And to take our experience from one project to the next to support peoples' success. Dan Seguin 38:01 Let's look at this future side of the business here, I want you to take out that crystal ball. In a smart city of tomorrow, the Internet of Things will connect residents, cars, buses, streetlights, and the public transit system. What do you see is your role in this connected city? And what is exciting you the most about this new future? Jim Pegg 38:27 Well, let's say you know, Envari is and I realize I'm probably repeating myself on this, but we do feel very passionate about this. Envari exists to make our customers successful. So we are constantly looking for new and innovative solutions that can help our customers in new ways, right? I mean, one of my colleagues will always say, he's never gone into a building and not found an opportunity to save energy. And this might be a building that he's been in before and done things and done lots of energy retrofits, but because technology keeps changing, you know, you might go in and do work in the building and do changes to the HVAC system put in lighting control systems. All things Envari has great experience with and save a pile of money for that customer in terms of their energy costs. And maybe five years down the road, 10 years down the road, some new technology will come out related to maybe the lighting or the windows or something else related to the HVAC system where the controls have gotten even more efficient are the units have gotten even more efficient. So when that asset is ready for replacement again, you can really dive in and do more of that deep retrofit. And that all comes out of innovation. I would say our ability to take projects from concept through to completion and offer operate and maintain services, working to ensure customers have options that fit their needs. Connected cities fits in very well with all these sets of expertise. Give you a good example: We have a strong Very strong lighting group who, who I think I think has, you know, recently completed the City of Ottawa lighting conversion Project 55,000 lights in the city of Ottawa. And as you can imagine, those lights are all over the place in the city, they're everywhere, and they have power to them, they have smart nodes on them, those could become a big part of a connected city in the future, it can become a key piece to that puzzle. And our team has done a great job working with the city and, and putting in place a system that will allow some of that enhanced ability in the future. And so I think that piece that really ties our expertise together well, in terms of our understanding of control systems, and even our energy dashboard offering that we have where people can enter, monitor their energy consumption, and energy usage. All those things tie into sort of the world we live in today, where people want information right away. And information right away allows for, you know, adjustment of plans and constantly looking for new and efficient ways to do things. And that's what we're trying to support. We're trying to support our customer success in an ever changing technological world. I think what excites me the most, I'd have to say, what excites me the most is, I think the opportunity that lies in front of all of us right now. I think we're all well aware of the situation with regards to the environment. And I think something COVID has shown us is with all the vehicles off the road, as an example, we've got now hard data that shows us the impact that can have on the environment. And you know, before it was a theoretical thing, because it wasn't really practical to the go to all of North America, for example, say, hey, can everyone stay home today? You know, anybody the laughed off the curve kind of thing. But now, that's almost happened. And we can look at that and say, Wow, look what that did in the atmosphere. And with all those emissions just shutting off. And that is what it will be like if we you know, convert to that electric vehicle situation, with more and more electric vehicles on the road. So, again, I think what excites me is is that opportunity we have, as a society to have a really significant impact positive impact on our environment, a real turning point to set this planet up nicely for our kids and grandkids. Dan Seguin 42:35 You talked about the cookie cutter. So I'd like to come back to that. Jim, with so many variables like charging hubs, workplace charging for fleets, multi residential, and electric public transit, I'm assuming there isn't a single cookie cutter solution for all? Based on your experience, can you tell us about the different types and the processes to implement these? Jim Pegg 43:07 Sure, as you say, there are many different scenarios. And Envari's approach typically for depends on the type of charge or the type of the scenario we're looking at. But our approach is often to start with what I referred to earlier was our EVRA in electric vehicle readiness assessment. Or essentially, we'll go in, we'll look at a building's capacity, and we'll look at the different options, we'll find out from a customer what it is that they are trying to accomplish, what is their specific need. From there, we'll talk about the different experiences we've had in the different things we've seen that have taken place and other places, again, as I alluded to earlier, so that we can learn from all those experiences and pull that knowledge together. But again, ultimately, it's about finding out from the customer, what exactly it is they're trying to achieve. And then from there, we'll put in front of them a number of different solutions, things that take advantage of different types of charging technology, things that look at different types of metering technology. There's, there's so many different solutions out there right now that you can put together almost like a little puzzle, to really find that perfect fit for an organization in terms of the situation they're trying to resolve. Once we understand those goals, again, longer term possibilities, and we've laid out the options. We're also in a great situation that we can actually build out that infrastructure. So we can actually do the build it the design the engineering, build out that infrastructure for the customer and basically right through commissioning. And we also offer an operating maintain type of solution. So you know, and again, I'll see I'll see this and I know we've said it a couple times here today, but there is no single cookie cutter solution, there just isn't. Even the standards around electric vehicles are ever changing. And the types of chargers I'm sure will change in the future, you know, a great example is some stuff we're seeing out of Toronto where they're taking situations where you wouldn't normally be able to put a fast charger because of maybe capacity constraints. And they're marrying up the charger with battery storage, so that they can you know, from the grids perspective, , you see a normal, moderate size load. But then on the charger side, on the car side, you can get actually a DC fast charge out of it, because you've got it paired with a battery that can discharge when you need it, and then trickle charge when that's not being used. So I mean, innovation, like that's going to go a long way. And, as I said, we're trying to stay on top of all those different innovations that come out to provide those best solutions for our customers. Dan Seguin 46:02 Cool. Thank you, Jim. With the significant increase of demand on the grid, how important is the management of power to balance the load? What are some of the things you identify with local utilities? And what should they do? And what should they be looking for, to support electrifying transportation today? Jim Pegg 46:29 Yeah, so I mean, as we've discussed, understanding the charger penetration on the distribution system, predicting when those chargers will be installed, and at what rate. And lastly, understanding the operation of those chargers will be a key piece of the information to support strong system planning. The good news is utilities do a great job of constantly looking at the distribution system, working to understand future demands on the system. This takes us back to the importance of having those conversations with utilities early. And it's important about having the right partner can support you who knows what questions to ask of those utilities. Dan Seguin 47:12 Jim, can you give me in your opinion about today's big question, are electric utilities and oil companies to industries in unique positions to help build a true EV movement in Canada? The former controls electricity distribution networks in the provinces and municipalities, while the ladder already operates strategically located fuel stations for internal combustion vehicles. What are your thoughts on that? Jim Pegg 47:45 Well, I would say if you've probably heard me echo this comment throughout in terms of the utility. I absolutely think the answer to the utility piece of that is clear. I think utilities are a key piece of the puzzle. Organizations like Envari that understand utility world, as well as the customer side of the meter. I think I think there are some key pieces there. I think the utilities obviously have a great understanding of the power flow and the impacts of the system. They're the ones that are going to do your technical deep dive to see if you've got, you know, very big bank of large fast chargers in one area, is that going to have any impact on systems power quality and, and things like that in terms of the type of load, you know, things that things that not everyone may think of. So those are, those are some key factors. But I think the utility is absolutely a part of that. Because, you know, at the end of the day, people, myself included, look to the utility for reliable power supply. And as we're converting things like fleets, and even especially transportation fleets that reliable power supply becomes somewhat critical to the economy in the sense that moving people around, you know, transportation move people around, if the lights go out, you want to make sure you've got maybe a good redundant backup supply. Or you have a system that's going to allow for switching the distribution system and maybe even automated switching at some point. So utilities are doing lots of different things. You know, as they as they work to change that ever changing landscape, again, COVID is a great example of that, right with a lot of people working from home. The utilities are, are working hard to make sure that they don't disrupt people that are working from home. Regarding the large oil companies. And I think, I believe, I believe we'll see more and more of those organizations getting involved with EV charging infrastructure. You know, as you notice, gas stations are everywhere and well suited for fast charging. We see more innovation on how to best use those properties. I think the electrification of vehicles is going to drive many changes in that respect. Dan Seguin 50:04 Okay, Jim, let's close off with rapid fire questions. I hope you're ready. Jim Pegg 50:09 Okay. Dan Seguin 50:10 What is your favorite word? Jim Pegg 50:13 Innovation Dan Seguin 50:14 What is the one thing you can't live without? Jim Pegg 50:17 My family Dan Seguin 50:18 What habits or hobbies have you picked up during shelter in place? Jim Pegg 50:23 That's a good one. I would say I do a lot more cooking Dan Seguin 50:26 Okay. If you could have one superpower, what would it be? Jim Pegg 50:32 Well, you're asking me this during the fall. So I'm going to go with the ability to fly and fly around and see all the nice colors. It's probably my favorite time of year. Dan Seguin 50:41 Good one, good one. If you could turn back time, and talk to your 18 year old self? What would you tell him? Jim Pegg 50:51 I think I would say your career path won't be a straight line. But that's okay. Dan Seguin 50:58 And lastly, what do you currently find most interesting in your sector? Jim Pegg 51:04 I'm going to tie this back to the innovation. I think the amount of innovation and the number of little things that I see that can have such a huge impact on the environment. And I really do believe there's a big opportunity in front of all of us right now to have a very large lasting impact. Dan Seguin 51:22 Cool. Well, Jim, we've reached the end of another episode of think energy podcast. Last question for you. How can our listeners learn more about you the company? And how can they connect? Jim Pegg 51:35 Well, I guess the best way is to check out our website at envari.com, and you can always reach out to myself or called my colleagues on LinkedIn as well. And we're always happy to have the conversations. Sometimes we might go on for too long, because obviously it's a many different topics we're passionate about. So, but always happy to chat and learn from each other. Dan Seguin 51:59 Okay, again, Jim, thank you so much for joining me today. I hope you had a lot of fun. Jim Pegg 52:04 Yeah, that was great. Dan, thanks very much. Always, always great to have your conversations with you. Dan Seguin 52:09 Thank you for joining us today. I truly hope you enjoyed this episode of ThinkEnergy podcast. For past episodes, make sure you visit our website hydroottawa.com/podcast. Lastly, if you found value in this podcast, be sure to subscribe. Anyway, this podcast is a wrap. Cheers, everyone.
Waterpower is Canada’s most abundant source of clean and renewable electricity. In fact, because of this, Canada is the second largest generator of hydroelectricity in the world. So, what’s next for Canada’s waterpower industry? Is there untapped potential? What are the plans for growth nationally and what influence does it have on the world stage? Our special guest, Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin, President and CEO of WaterPower Canada, helps us demystify the water industry. Related Content & Links: https://hydroottawa.com/ Websites: waterpowercanada.ca Twitter: @WaterPowerCA LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/canadian-hydropower-association/ Transcript: Dan Seguin 00:02 Hey, everyone, welcome back. This is the ThinkEnergy podcast, one of Canada's oldest hydroelectric generating station was commissioned right here in the nation's capital in 1891. Located in the heart of downtown Ottawa, is a stone throws away from the parliament building. Chaudière Falls is still providing clean and renewable electricity today, nearly 130 years after it went into service. While hydroelectricity first powered our great country, it was fossil fuel that became the dominant energy source of the 20th century. But it seems that what was old is new again. And cleaner electricity is making a comeback in a big way. I'm convinced it will be the energy source that powers the 21st century. Because Canada is a water rich country, it's not surprising that water power is Canada's most abundant source of clean, and renewable electricity. It provides more than 60% of our country's total electricity, with an installed capacity soon exceeding 85,000 megawatts. As such, Canada is the second largest generator of hydroelectricity in the world after China. To reduce Canada's emissions of greenhouse gases that cause climate change, we must strategically reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and increase the amount of electricity we produce from non-emitting and renewable energy resources. Hydroelectricity produces no air pollution, and has ultra-low greenhouse gas emissions, especially for those stations that are run of the river. From a full lifecycle assessment basis, Canada's hydro power is amongst the lowest emitting resources available and like Chaudière falls proves hydro power assets can last well over 100 years if properly maintained, making them very cost effective long term investments. Canada is already a leader in hydro power generation, but it has a potential to more than double its current capacity, thanks to its abundant, untapped water power resource. Contrary to popular opinion, Canadian hydro power is cost competitive, which helps keep rates low for customers. In fact, provinces with the highest hydro power installed capacity tend to have the lowest electricity costs. So here's today's big question: What's next for Canada's water power industry? What are the plans for growth nationally? And what influence does it have on the world stage? Our special guest today will help demystify the water industry: Waterpower Canada's president and CEO, Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin. Perhaps you can start by telling us a bit about yourself, what drew you to your current role, and how you became an advocate for renewable energy, particularly waterpower. Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 04:04 I think what really brought me to waterpower is a mixed bag of training and experiences. I specialized in environmental law at school. So my passion has always been sustainability and environmental protection. And after graduating, I had the opportunity to work for justice for a bit mostly focusing on mining projects. But that kind of took me to the next you know, job which was to work for Hatch, an international engineering firm, where I worked on international project projects across the world as an environmental and social impact management specialist. So that's where I got my hands dirty in terms of really seeing how projects are done from start to finish the whole pre-feasibility to commissioning. So that was very, very good, a great experience over about four years. And then I kind of switched a little bit - wanting to have a broader approach to sustainability. So not just look at projects, but also look at corporate sustainability. How do you integrate that thinking into your processes, the way you work with your employees? And also how do you continue to obviously implement the best procedures on projects. And so I looked at other opportunities. And I was then hired by what was then called the Canadian Hydropower Association, which we rebranded about two years ago as Waterpower Canada. So that was my first real exposure to the water power industry. Now, about seven years ago, I'd say, which, you know, time flies, as they say, but it's been a great experience, because it really allowed me to bring my legal experience and my passion for sustainability in my role as an advocate for renewable energy. Dan Seguin 06:01 What is the mission of Waterpower Canada? And what kind of initiatives is it pursuing to advance and support hydro power, nationally, and even internationally, Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 06:13 So we are a national trade association. So our mission as an organization is really to promote and actively advocate for hydropower. That means, you know, promoting the existing assets, the existing fleet, promoting the attributes, what it does for Canadians what it does for the country in general, and also promoting future developments, be it sometimes reinvestment in the fleet through refurbishment redevelopments, or, of course, as well, Greenfield, Greenfield projects. So nationally that's really our focus is to bring awareness, I always say my job is 50%, government relations, 50% communications, and they tend to marry in the sense that you're always communicating in this field, right, you're always trying to bring more knowledge and more awareness about your sector, no matter who you're talking to. But you aim it a different way, depending on kind of where you focus, what you focus on. And then internationally, we definitely focus more and more on, on working with the US in terms of leveraging the clean exports of hydro power to the US. It's not a new thing. You know, it's been ongoing for decades. And it's been a huge source of wealth for Canada and for certain provinces in particular. But it is something that we see as an opportunity in the future because the US has a pretty emission intensive electricity sector. And they're looking at decarbonizing similar to us, right, but they don't have necessarily all the attributes ready to go that that we can offer in Canada, and we are very connected north-south. So it is it is almost a self-fulfilling prophecy in the sense of being able to send us clean electrons across the border, without too many too many hurdles. So we were also kind of deploying that kind of efforts internationally. Dan Seguin 08:15 In Canada, we know about the environmental benefits of hydro power, in terms of renewable energy, cleaner air, and less pollution, overall, perhaps less known lies under the surface, and the impact of these facilities, particularly turbines can have on fish and other water species. Can you talk a bit about what the industry is doing to contribute to the recovery of endangered, threatened and other species at risk? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 08:47 The first thing I'll say is that our sector has been around for more than a century. So any impact that we have is very well understood, and has been very well studied. And there's been a lot of research going into avoidance or when you cannot avoid an impact, mitigation, right, which is the rule for sure. So in terms of fish habitats, in particular, I'll give you an example which is something I've learned through my career working within the water power sector. And it's quite interesting and it happens across the nation right from coast to coast to coast, but you have requirements that are set by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and also of course, by your local regulating bodies, that you know, operate at different levels. And those you know, dictate kind of the measures that you have to put in place and in many cases when you have a hydro site, runoff river or reservoir, you tend to have offsets and you know protocols or fish habitat banking is what we call and without getting into the you know the terminology of you know, that we use with an industry, but through those techniques, you actually have a great opportunity to operate a site that now has a greater fish population that what you found when you actually started with your Greenfield project, and that has been seen and studied. And there's been a lot of, you know, case studies presented on this, where, you know, different fish species actually respond very well to habitat banking. And, they're thriving, more than, you know, maybe the conditions that they were having before the hydro site was developed. So it's that that's just an example. And of course, it's a great success story, but it's not to overshadow the fact that, yes, we operate in water, we do have impacts, and there's always, and they will always be room for improvements. And so a lot of research above and beyond this protocols and, and systems that we implement. A lot of research is actually invested in making sure that the first rule is to avoid impacts, and you don't turn to mitigation right away. Dan Seguin 11:10 When you envision the future of hydro power, what do you see? And what are some of the most exciting things that the industry is doing? Or that Waterpower Canada is spearheading? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 11:23 So, you know, with COVID-19, of course, the landscape is different now. But I'm going to put that aside, and for the only reason that we don't know what's going to happen, right, we don't know what's going to happen post COVID the ramifications how long it's going to last. So kind of crystal balling the future on this is a bit of a risky exercise. But if I if I said that crisis aside, what was really exciting, just you know, over the past few years, and what we were lining up and gearing up to, to work on was the huge wave of refurbishment and redevelopment. The average age of a hydropower facility in Canada is 50 years. And that's about the same in the US, right? Our assets are what we call generational assets. Which is great, because you can refurbish them, you know, throughout generations, and it's yours to keep for decades and decades and decades. But what it also means is that every once in a while you have to invest, and inject those capital reinvestments so that you can continue to operate your fleet. And also, you know, modernize the fleet. So that's very exciting. Because no matter what happens with the global pandemic situation, this is going to happen, I don't know if it's going to happen within the next year, or now within the next five years. But what it means is that it's going to inject billions in the Canadian economy, it's going to sustain a lot of jobs. And it's going to help us decarbonize, you know, further, we already have about an 80%, non-emitting electricity grid, thanks to Hydro and other renewables, and thanks to nuclear, but of course, there's more room for improvement. And so anything you can do to leverage your existing fleet and just pull out those clean electrons is good news in a very exciting. Dan Seguin 13:15 What do you think is the biggest myth or misunderstanding about water power? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 13:20 You know, I, there are quite a few. So but it raises my blood pressure when I think about all of them, so I'll just focus on one. But what I what I hear often and above and beyond the lack of knowledge, generally speaking, I think it's always mind boggling to hear that people don't necessarily know or understand the role that waterpark plays in our in our generation mix. But above and beyond that, I think that the biggest misunderstanding is the fact that people really assume that hydro is an old, dusty, non-innovative technology, because we've been around for so long. And it is actually really, really incorrect because we've been around for so long because we are extremely innovative because we are extremely fine tuning research. Every corner that we take, right, and if we weren't innovative, and if we weren't investing in digitalization and new systems, we wouldn't have survived. And so I always say that the original clean tech in Canada is water power, and is the most enduring one, which is a pretty impressive fact. Dan Seguin 14:33 The hydro power sector contributes more than $30 billion to the Canadian economy and supports a labor force 130,000 strong. What kind of growth does waterpower Canada foresee in the future? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 14:47 So just through the refurbishments and redevelopments that was talking about earlier. This is going to trigger a huge growth in the fleet because with no major new and harmful impacts with, you know, a pretty reasonable injection of funds into your fleet, you can actually get a lot more generation out of an existing site. So that's very exciting. And, it's going to trickle down in terms of economic ramifications. But what we will always kind of try and advocate for is to not let go of Greenfield hydro. And, and the exciting thing about hydro is it comes in many shapes and forms. So you don't have to just focus on large hydro reservoir, you also have run of the river of all sizes , by the way, because a lot of people assume that run off river is small hydro, but you can have 1000 megawatt, run of the river facilities, right, which is pretty big. But what's really exciting too, and we hear about more and more these days is pump storage. So we, you know, we didn't focus too much on pump storage, I think as a nation in the past, because we didn't really have to, we had so many easily developable sites run of the river, reservoir and reservoir is embedded storage, right. So it's a great way to have on demand clean electricity. But now more and more, we're looking at exciting projects that are investing in pumped storage, and its across Canada, as well, there's a project in Ontario, another one in Alberta, but pump storage is basically a closed loop hydro system where you have elevation, and you take advantage of that elevation to bring water down, and then back up depending on cost of electricity and low demand. So that you can meet peak load requirements, and also reduce your expenditure by managing that curve, in a very smart way. So it is it is very innovative. It is it is something that again has existed for many, many years. It's nothing new. But we had we haven't really invested a lot in this technology in Canada. So far, it's much more common in the US. But I see this coming more and more top of mind. Dan Seguin 17:19 Hydro power infrastructure is designed to withstand floods, and often plays an important role in flood mitigation and management. We've learned that in Ottawa the hard way in 2017, and 2019. Has climate resilience and adapting to the impacts of climate change been front of mind, for Canada's electricity producers? Where do you see making the biggest impacts? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 17:46 So yeah, we are investing a lot in climate change research. And I'd say it should be a priority for any sector, probably in the world. So there's a lot of research going on, we are partnering with modeling agencies, like , who helped us, you know, understand, not just the impacts on the hydropower fleet, but kind of bring in external factors as well that are going to affect climate change. The difficulty and the challenge in the country that's as big as Canada is the fact that your impacts are not going to be one general, one size fits all for the sector. So you won't be able to use general categorization for your industry, you're going to have to get regions, of course. And I remember actually a few years ago, during the floods that were happening in Ontario and Quebec, my members in BC, were saying that they were actually observing low levels in their reservoirs. And so that just speaks to the fact that it's not just a small difference, you have an extreme event happening in one side of the country, and another extreme event as a drought on the other side of the country. So what that means is you have to be extremely flexible. And people have to design especially when they refurbish and when they build new sites with climate change in mind every step of the way. Dan Seguin 19:08 You've touched on this earlier Anne-Raphaëlle, hydro power has been around for more than 100 years. What does the untapped potential in Canada look like? And what are some of the innovations within the sector that makes it even more attractive? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 19:27 Yeah. So that's one of the other misconceptions that I was alluding to earlier on a previous question. When that when I talk to Canadians and also to policymakers, sometimes they tell me Well, you know, yes, we've got a lot of hydro power in Canada, it's more than 60% of our generation. But surely, because it's so big, we must be tapped out. There must not be any more hydro to develop. And it couldn't be further from the truth. We actually have a lot of water In Canada, we've got good innovation, great sights still to develop. So our untapped potential is actually more than double our existing installed capacity. So we've got about 85,000 megawatts of current installed capacity. So you can, you can only imagine what we could do if we were to just develop a portion of the untapped technical potential. And, and the great news about that now, I always emphasize that when I when I speak at conferences, or when I have discussions with government, and stakeholders in general is to say that, that potential is not just a reality in in one province, it's a reality across the country. So when we look at decarbonizing, electrifying, all of those great things that you know are happening are going to happen, you know, over the next few years, it's just a must to look at what you could do with your hydro resources in your province or in your territory, because it's there, it exists. Dan Seguin 21:01 Technology is enhancing digitization, and automation of hydro power plants to realize their full potential. What are some of the digital solutions around monitoring, maintenance, and service that you see the industry benefiting from either now or the near future? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 21:22 So I hear a lot about virtual reality, and also artificial intelligence in my sector. And of course, they're two different things, but they tap into that new world of technologies that can help you operate your site in a different way. I think anything that's going to allow us to have remote access to our sites, and that means from a controlling operation. Also, from a supply chain perspective - actually COVID-19 brought one positive from my perspective, which is the fact that we're leveraging tools, more and more that allow us to do remote inspection, for example, because of course, during the pandemic, we couldn't actually go to two warehouses and inspect equipment as it was coming in from China, wherever across the world, right? You had to just wait until it arrived on site. And sometimes we're talking big pieces of furniture, now just a screw and a hammer. So just having tools that really allow you to get in and take a full scope, engineering, look at your equipment, as it comes in before it is delivered is a huge progress, and those tools exists. And that was a huge discovery, I think for me, because I wasn't aware that technology was that far ahead, already ready to respond. Another example, which is always interesting, because I've toured quite a few hydro sites. And I remember at one of the oldest sites in Canada, you know, we were looking at the control room: tons of switches, you know, probably a room that could probably accommodate eight to 10 people at one time. And, and the operator was saying, well, we refurbished and now the person can actually control everything from his living room at home, and is that his laptop, because it's all integrated, and the system is talking to that control room here on site. And that's all it takes. So automation is definitely going to be needed in the future. But it doesn't mean that we won't need, you know, physical, you know, staff and people to manage, because, of course, it's still going to be a huge requirement, but it is more efficient. And that is every day that that kind of innovation happens. Dan Seguin 23:44 You indicated earlier that waterpower in Canada provides more than 90% of our renewable power and 60% of our overall electricity supply. Canada is blessed with an abundance of untapped potential, residing both in existing sites and new developments. Any thoughts on the pros and cons of refurbishment and redevelopment opportunities versus the development of new projects? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 24:15 Yes. So I mean, it's all case specific: that's the obvious answer. And so what makes sense for a site may not make sense for another one, meaning that, you know, we've got a lot of members that are actually assessing a specific site and considering everything like from decommissioning, which is, you know, turning off the lights basically and saying, Okay, this asset has played its role and that we're going to return the site back to nature. When the economy, you know, just circumstances or environmental or just the general circumstances surrounding a specific site dictate certain decisions. So I think it's not very common that, you know, people would decide to decommission a hydro site because most of the time, even if it's just a little bit of generation, when you've had a site for 80-90 years, and you've refurbished it and maintained it over the years, it's still it's still a great provider of clean electricity. It's still a money-maker for the utility or for the independent power producer. So it's still definitely a great benefit to have within your fleet. But so I don't see any downside to refurbishment, or redevelopment. I think it's a low hanging fruit for electrification, it's something that's going to happen. It's just a question of when, and Greenfield hydro is not going anywhere. I think it's just, let's focus on what we can do first, which is refurbishment. It's the obvious thing to do and it's needed. And in a decade or two, we'll probably see another wave of investment in Greenfield hydro. Dan Seguin 25:55 Before I forget, are you able to demystify for our listeners what Greenfield hydro is? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 26:03 Greenfield hydro means you take a site that is completely natural. So an untouched site, and you develop a hydro site. And it's a terminology that can be used for any industry, not just hydro. So you can say Greenfield mining Greenfield wind, it just means that you start with a site that hasn't been touched. Dan Seguin 26:24 Hydro power can provide abundant low carbon energy, with its storage from reservoir and pump storage. As the only renewable form of baseload electricity, how essential is hydro power to leading Canada's transition away from fossil fuels, while maximizing environmental benefits. Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 26:46 It's not only essential, it's critical. We always say that if we didn't have what a power within our generation mix, we would be in in a terrible situation as a country, because again, 60% of our overall electricity generation is coming from that big renewable giant, which is water power. So you know, if we take a step back and consider for one second the world we live in, in Canada, without water power, it would be quite different, and it would probably be much dirtier in terms of emissions. So we start with a huge asset, and a huge advantage compared to some countries and you know, people from across the world come to Canada to actually learn about our mostly non-emitting electricity grid. How did you do it? What are the systems you put in place? What is your regulatory environment? How did you get to where you are now? But of course, it's not to say that we are perfect because we're not we've got high emission, or emission intensive sectors. Some provinces are doing better than others for historical reasons, you know, different decisions. And I think we've been blessed with an abundance of natural resources across the nation. And so we shouldn't point fingers. It's really not about that. It's just about Okay, how do we get better? How do we clean up our system? So that we move away from, you know, negative emissions and move toward electrification, which is the priority? Right, the easiest thing to do is to turn to electrifying our transportation, of course, and then buildings, and hydropower is there, you know, we just need the right, you know, economic environment, the right signals from governments, in terms of regulatory streamlining, for example, in terms of regulations that incentivize investment in hydro, and the sector will respond because we've got the resources to develop and do more to decarbonize Canada. Dan Seguin 28:46 You've touched on this earlier, but wondering if we can explore further. Both Canada and the United States are looking for ways to reduce carbon emissions to meet greenhouse gas reduction targets. With 60% of US electricity still being generated from coal and gas powered thermal plants, is Canada's clean, renewable hydro power becoming an attractive option for Border States? How are those partnerships negotiated? Has it been an easy sell? Are those states coming to you? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 29:22 So it's as we discussed, yes, it's been something that has been done for years. So it's nothing new under the sun. But I think it's becoming more top of mind because big players like the mayor of New York, you know, for the past year has been saying, you know, we want to import a lot of clean and renewable hydro from Quebec. And he's right you know, it's a few hours north of his of his state. It's available there. There are big surpluses in Quebec it's the cheapest electricity you can buy not just in Canada - in North America. And it's a source of wealth for this province. And it's the same story in Manitoba. You know, who sends electricity to Minnesota and other states and neighboring that border on that side of the country, with new transmission lines going through the approval process in each of those jurisdictions. So I think this is definitely going to be more talked about in the future. I think it's probably rising to news headlines more and more because of politics. And depending on the political environment on either side of the border, it can be framed as a positive story, or it can be framed as a negative story, but for all intents and purposes for Canadians and for Americans, it is a great, great thing to do, because you decarbonize the system, you have a low electricity cost, and on top of everything, it's clean and renewable, so why wouldn't you do it? Dan Seguin 30:51 How about we close off with rapid fire questions? Are you ready? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 30:55 Okay. Dan Seguin 30:57 What is your favorite word? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 31:01 Um,you know, I'm a Francophone. But there's a word that I really like in English, not necessarily for its meaning, but for the sound it has on the tongue. It's serendipity. I just find it funny. It rolls well. Dan Seguin 31:14 What is the one thing you can't live without? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 31:17 Probably in equal measures: my family and coffee. Is that an acceptable answer? Dan Seguin 31:24 What is something that challenges you? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 31:29 As a mom, with a young family, I'm not a big fan of the terminology, you know, work life balance, but just trying to set some time for what's important, and not being consumed by work or other things. So just knowing your limits, I think is going to be a lifelong exercise for me. Dan Seguin 31:51 If you could have one superpower, what would it be? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 31:55 Oh, that's a good one. Probably traveling through time. Dan Seguin 32:00 Okay. If you could turn back time, and talk to your 18 year old self? What would you tell her? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 32:08 That you're on the right path, you know, continue to travel as much as you can. And, and learn from people who want to mentor you, you know, on your path to whatever you want to achieve. Because you know, people want to help each other. That's what I've learned. They're always happy to share insights. And most the time you just have to ask and people will be there to help you. Dan Seguin 32:33 And lastly, what do you currently find most interesting in your sector? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 32:40 I think all the excitement around the electrification, the fact that we know this is probably the next Industrial Revolution. It's hard to really tangibly feel what this is going to look like. But it's going to affect everybody in a good way. And there's not going to be one sector that's going to be left to the side because we're all going to need to collaborate. And so just that aspect of working together and being able to find new ways to revolutionize a system that has been implemented for years and years is very exciting. Dan Seguin 33:13 Last question for you. How can our listeners learn more about your organization? How can they connect? Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin 33:20 So website is always the first stop: waterpowercanada.ca We're very active on social media too, so they can find us on YouTube. They can find us on Twitter and on LinkedIn. And don't be a stranger because we love hearing from people. Dan Seguin 33:39 Thank you for joining us today. I truly hope you enjoyed this episode of The ThinkEnergy podcast. For past episodes, make sure you visit our website hydroottawa.com/podcast. Lastly, if you found value in this podcast, be sure to subscribe. Cheers, everyone.
Removing obsolete dams will bring new life to rivers, argue environmental advocates. Hydroelectricity was once hailed as a green alternative to fossil fuels, but do the ecological consequences outweigh the benefits? Ulrich Eichelmann discusses the work of RiverWatch, an organisation taking legal action to remove obsolete dams throughout Europe.
Once upon a time…We all recognize these four little words, don’t we? It means a story is about to begin. Storytelling is one of the most powerful means that leaders and brands have to influence, teach, connect and inspire. The energy sector is often misunderstood. Could it be that we are not using effective storytelling techniques to connect customers to our work, our purpose and our people? As energy sector communicators, how can we improve our storytelling? Founder and CEO of See Change Institute, Dr. Beth Karlin, joins us to explain the key components of good stories and why they can form lasting connections. Related Content & Links: https://hydroottawa.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethkarlin/ https://seechangeinstitute.com/
One of Australia’s oldest and most prolific methods of generating energy is poised to transform the electricity network - again. In this episode of ReWired we take a deep dive into one of the oldest energy storage technologies - pumped hydro. More than a century on from the establishment of the Tasmanian Hydro-Electric Department, new hydro projects are being developed as part of work to prepare for a future powered by renewables. In this episode, we hear from Hydro Tasmania CEO Steve Davy about the vision for the island state to become a national powerhouse. Chief Scientist Alan Finkel and AEMO CEO Audrey Zibelman share their insights into how pumped hydro will fit into the future energy mix, and ARENA CEO Darren Miller outlines some of the work underway to help this technology become commercial. How could it work? While the technology that underpins pumped hydro is not new, there are only a few working systems around the country. The two biggest projects in the pipeline - Snowy 2.0 and Tasmania’s Battery of the Nation - have a collective capacity of about 4500 MW. According to Snowy Hydro, the 2000 MW Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro facility could power three million homes for more than a week when operating at full capacity. The large output and long duration makes pumped hydro well suited to complement large-scale renewables, with the capacity to store energy from windy and sunny periods for when generation drops. One challenge is sending electricity from remote sites suited to large-scale pumped hydro facilities to distant population centres where it is needed. Tasmania’s plan to build the “Battery of the Nation” to bolster the National Electricity Market has a particularly big hurdle to overcome - Bass Strait. With the existing BassLink interconnector at capacity, work is underway to advance the plan for a second connection to the mainland. The business case for the proposed “Marinus Link” is well-developed and the second interconnector is on track to enter service as soon as 2027. Stay up to date ARENA Rewired: Solving the Energy Puzzle is available wherever you listen to podcasts. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe now so you get a notification when new episodes are released. You can help us grow the podcast by sharing it with your friends, family and colleagues, and let us know what you think on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.
In episode #336 of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh interviews Ramona Neckoway and Stephane McLachlan. Both are academics who do research on the impacts of hydroelectricity projects on the environment and on Indigenous communities, and Neckoway is also a member of Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation, a hydro-impacted community. They talk about Wa Ni Ska Tan, an alliance that brings together people from communities in Manitoba that have been impacted by hydroelectricity projects, as well as their supporters, for both action and research. For a more detailed description of this episode, go here: http://talkingradical.ca/2019/09/10/trr-wa_ni_ska_tan_alliance/
Welcome to Finance and Fury, the Furious Friday edition Going to run through the last part of the Lucky country – and that is how we can best turn our luck around Through – innovation, freedom of choice, and ignoring narratives based on assumptions Going to skip through Innovation and freedom of choice –to not repeat the same thing over and over – check out the other eps on this – links on the website – Quick summary of how they fit into todays topic though Growth through Innovation – these two-go hand in hand – Creating new businesses and technologies, products and services which drives innovation – profit incentive – Innovation efficiency is a market force Innovation is a chain – single inventor, drive to improve, idea used to make product, then others improve Without companies we never get tech improvements – Chain between Gov tech and population What accelerates this - Freedom of choice and equality of opportunity – After researching this for years – assume it to be correct – but others have different views based around their assumptions I also believe that freedom of choice extends to what we allow as a population – due to the decisions we make based on assumptions Taxation policy is based around assumptions – but regardless of low or high rates – collect average tax to GDP% But when the very assumptions that we are basing a decision off is incorrect – it isn’t surprising we don’t get the outcome expected What Today's episode will cover - What we assume is good for us, or will work – may have the opposite effect Also – how to know what we are told to assume is actually good for us Assumptions and models – Our lives are built on assumptions – heuristics – this is good, saves mental capacity for mundane tasks in decision making – System 1 and 2 – but something repeated enough moves from us thinking about it – to an automatic action I see this with investing all the time – If it is something I already own or understand well – investing becomes an automatic action – but if it is a fund I haven’t seen before, i wouldn’t just assume it is the same as all of the ones I currently hold If you are told something over and over again – you just assume it is true – repetition is a powerful tool Good and bad habits also form this way – if you hear the same thing over and over from different sources – must be true? Example – Who do you assume is smarter/provided greater benefit to our lives? Einstein or Tesla? Person – not company Based around assumptions – I’m assuming most of you have to stop and think about it for a second or have Einstein as a default answer – he is more commonly discussed/known – But I might be wrong – I am just assuming that based on personal experience, few people truly know the benefit to our lives Tesla provided Einstein was once asked how being the smartest man alive was – ‘I don’t know, you’ll have to ask Nikola Tesla’ What did Tesla invent? Beyond the power in your home – 300 patents – a lot of them helped develop most tech we have First Electro-Magnetic motor patent in 1888 – Why Musk named the company after him Radio – Marconi credited – when asked ‘Marconi is a good fellow, let him continue, he is using 17 of my patents’ Wireless, remote control, Radar, Xrays, Hydroelectricity, the resonant frequency of earth – earthquake machine, speedometers or electricity frequency or flow meter The list goes on– but didn’t care about money or credit, gave what patents away worth billions back then we assume that he had nothing to do with it anything outside of electricity – was an obscure fellow who had some beef with Edison – Instead – developed free wireless electricity for public use – His backers weren’t happy – JP Morgan and Oilmen The only man that was willing to fund him was John Astor, who died on the Titanic, a boat the JP Morgan owned He ran out of funding – and was smeared by the press of the time to destroy his reputation so nobody would take him seriously – Story of him wanting to marry a Pidgeon – actually not true – I assumed it was as I read it online It was a dream he had - he became fascinated by them - can sense the resonant frequency of earth better than almost any animal – then he had a dream about one and was talking about that – fake news is nothing new – just thanks to the internet and phone cameras, it is hard to completely cover up the truth What did Einstein leave us? theories of relativity with little application outside of the metaphysical/purely theoretical Tesla quote – ‘Einstein’s relativity work is a magnificent mathematical garb which fascinates, dazzles and makes people blind to the underlying errors. The theory is like a beggar clothed in purple whom ignorant people take for a king….its exponents are brilliant men but they are metaphysicists rather than scientists’. Moral of this story - Be aware of things that dazzle to blind – things that cannot be explained to you – too good to be true Don’t trust something that sounds too good to be true – promises and assumptions – political game used to win votes This is where Narratives comes in – Due to repetition and overexposure – these can become a commonly held assumption narrative or story is an account of a series of related events, experiences, or the like, whether true or fictitious has one purpose – to entertain through storytelling to entertain, motivate or educate The best narrative has all three – motivates people through educating them of something to fear – while being entertaining Built around distractions or to drive public opinion – which drives policy decision Mediums which form narratives Television Programming – it is in the name - a very effective tool in the past – control the flow of information Remember The News isn’t responsible for providing you factual information – they are responsible to make a profit But that is through delivering stories to the public – like a lot of stories, they are based around real-world events Ignoring the accuracy of any CNN reporting – the coverage is negative of Trump – gives an image that they suffer under him But CNN – Admits that Trump getting elected was the best thing to ever happen to them – MSM dying – leaked recordings nobody watching except airports, nursing homes – Youtube news channels get more views than them – What gets people’s attention? Fear or scandal – why 92% of all coverage of Trump is negative – their viewers dropping under Obama to record lows – needed to up the scandal meter Problem with most of these stories? Conclusions are based around assumptions – or reading a headline What to do? - News websites are a great source of some current events occurring, but not what actually happened - But just know that most of what you read and see online – about our politicians –policy, climate change, everything being pushed is for a purpose – to make you click – it is what makes money - what makes people click? Doom and Gloom – but also – these companies track what people online are looking at and commenting on – Creates an echo chamber of information – room of people by lunch looking at what has the most amount of clicks No wonder we are nihilistic in the west – Creates pessimism – unwillingness to move beyond the worst – why? Cause we can’t move beyond something if we can’t solve it, or take action to help mitigate the worst Example – what is more relevant to your life – that the Government has the power to seize your money to bail out a mess they helped create? Or the off chance that for the first time ever, predictions on Climate change will be even close to accurate and things get a little warmer over the next 100 years? Depends on what your assumptions about the world are – first - the Gov would never do that, latter - warmer earth is bad Looking back over records - 18000bc – average temp was 23 degrees – so about -4 from average over 50 years 12500 years ago – a spike in a hundred years of about 3 degrees – about -1 from a 50-year average 9500 bc – spike again – by about 3 degrees from where it was – then continued to go up 9000bc to 1500bc – temps were above or the same as now – were people dying? Or did agriculture get easier? From 1400bc up until last 100 years, went through a drop in average temps – decline in temps correlated with disease and famines in the colder parts of the world – like Europe There is little evidence that a warmer world is bad – especially compared to a colder earth – Why doesn’t the news cover long term trends of the Earth’s rotational axis – oscillates between 22.1 and 24.5 degrees on a 41,000-year cycle – by 2.4 degrees wobble – very slowly currently 23.44 degrees and decreasing at a rate of about 0.013° per century this model predicts that the long-term cooling trend that began some 6,000 years ago will continue for the next 23,000 years - Global temp peaked in 7500bc – stayed there for a while – but since 4000bc started dropping Imagine that you had been alive for 20000 years – seen all a lot of different earth climates – (link to graph on the website) Current models for temp increase have massive variances - error margins – 1 - 4.5 degrees increase in temperature How are they predicting this – when not even a 2-week forecast in temperature is accurate? Assume correct damaging thing to focus on – mostly outside of anyone’s control! made scared of the weather changing This can potentially be a damaging narrative - carbon is what is creating this right? Well we are carbon-based lifeforms – if people keep following that narrative once they implement all of their changes but it doesn’t help anything – they keep looking for more solutions – already are where celebrities are talking about how having less kids can help – while wanting more immigrations This sort of focus is based on one thing - Making people focus on the elements/topics that polarise– us versus them mentality So the narrative changes our interaction with each other – rather than accepting we have shared common goals, but different ways of achieving these – it is portrayed as if we don’t agree on how, you are against me and my enemy - Loss of freedom of speech – Introduces The assumption that someone is evil for not wanting to do the same thing as you Funny that the views of a lot of our grandfathers and great grandfathers would be called the Nazis they fought today Sleight of hand Government and media combined play– creates a concern to worry about and focus attention, resources on – then the population demand change – the government capitulates, or loses power While little attention is given to the things that will actually affect us day to day What to do – What is the source of your assumptions – and the accuracy someone is telling you the truth is okay when they are Someone thinks they are telling you the truth – hit or miss Someone is telling you a half truth for a purpose – not great Stop assuming – this is the simplest thing that we can do as a society to help drive growth, innovation, basically a better future where we keep moving forwards – rather than backwards Don’t let overtons window close – While some ideas are awful – they shouldn’t be scielened from them – The Socratic method, also known as method of Elenchus, elenctic method, or Socratic debate, is a form of cooperative argumentative dialogue between individuals, based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to draw out ideas and underlying presuppositions But when talking to the other side is demonised – as the attacks become personalised/polarised – triggers automatic hatred for the individual more than ideas Having emotional connection to politics – have to remove and focus on what you can do Don’t let the media or politicians decide what you should think - Remember Media uses a lot of subconscious imagery as framing – is someone evil? Montage of threatening music and suggestive descriptions, mention someone else who is publicly hated Also – selective choice of what to publicise or broadcast/edit interviews – try to get a number of different sources on a story – but not all just from companies that use a copy paste template on each story Once the media have created a problem by incorrect assumptions and are found out – how much accountability is there - Can never admit that they are wrong – they just shift the narrative without any culpability for their actions And so that you don’t pick up on the fact that they are the most reliable for facts US (extension global) Media ran with a narrative that Trump (elected president) committed treason, working with Putin Trump took office and said Obama Administration, DOJ, authorised wire taps and survailce on Trump and staffers Called crazy, but turns out it was true – based on a manufactured report – approval given by DOJ Question – If there was evidence Trump was a spy/committing treason – Taps started well before he won the election Why wouldn’t anyone come forward with actual evidence Start letting what the media say fall on deaf ears – everyone is too worried about climate change as there is a report a day about it – then some major story once a month to peak interest again Think for yourself – Luck can be undone – get 21 in blackjack and ask to hit – you blew some luck We each got 21 living in this country – either born or moved here – don’t blow it Don’t just assume – assumptions are the mother of all F ups – if you are demanding for action/change – you better be able to teach the theory as to why and how it will help – instead – people assume what they are told will work If you want to get in contact you can do so here. Resources: Temperature graph https://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/09/29/earths-obliquity-and-temperature-over-the-last-20000-years/
Hydroelectricity from Small Hydro Power Plants
A few years ago an acquaintance told me he had put solar panels on his houses and how profitable it was. I said you realise that pensioners are paying for this in their increased electricity bills. He said he knew that but when the government made the offer he realised that there would be a lot of money in it. If the government was silly enough to do this he was going to take it. And that is the problem when politicians get a bright idea. In broad terms electricity bills are likely to rise by about 20% over the next year. About 10% relates to the carbon dioxide tax which the Gillard government introduced in breach of a clear and specific election promise by Prime Minister Gillard and Treasure Wayne Swan that they would not. This is on top of the increases over the last few years. In NSW prices increased by 70% over the past 6 years.- The remainder of the 20% increase after the new CO2 tax relates to another politicians’ folly. This is the RET, that is renewable energy targets. Labour and the coalition are to blame for this. They decided that coal power which Australians is a very cheap source of electricity should be replaced by renewable energy. But the only renewable energy sources our bright politicians allow are precisely those ones which are abject failures. One is wind farming, the other is solar energy. Incidentally most of the profits from wind farming don’t even stay in Australia - but that's another story. The two forms of renewable energy which work -the ones which are not allowed –are nuclear and hydroelectric power. Hydroelectricity is now I'd banned because the Greens and Labour won't allow it. This is usually because of some spotted toad or something like that which they believe has to be protected. In addition, Labor in New South Wales police decided that the infrastructure had to be reliable – gold plated as Simon Bensen puts it in the Telgraph (15/6)f. That is power had to be assured at the times of overwhelming demand. For example if there were a heatwave of the severe modern air conditioning would be put on and you couldn't have a breakdown then. So we spent a massive amount of money to take into account unusual periods of peak demand – at most a few days in a year – in some years not at all. Also some state governments had been raiding the profits of electricity companies effectively denying them funds for reinvestment We should have some of the cheapest electricity in the world. Instead we're sending out coal to China and other countries so that they can have cheap electricity. With the Labor’s CO2 tax, and both sides RET – as well as gold plating- we look as though we will soon have one of the world’s dearest. Such is the wisdom of our politicians. Irrefutable evidence of a glaring need to make the politicians accountable to the people not every three or four years in too often contrived elections. They need to be accountable on everyday in every week and of every month.
Transcript -- France is uniquely dependent on nuclear power but recently the government has been trying to encourage the development of a sustainable energy industry
France is uniquely dependent on nuclear power but recently the government has been trying to encourage the development of a sustainable energy industry
Transcript -- France is uniquely dependent on nuclear power but recently the government has been trying to encourage the development of a sustainable energy industry
France is uniquely dependent on nuclear power but recently the government has been trying to encourage the development of a sustainable energy industry
Earth's physical resources: renewable energy - for iPad/Mac/PC
Introducing Loch Sloy, the biggest hydroelectric scheme in Britain.
Earth's physical resources: renewable energy - for iPod/iPhone
Transcript -- Introducing Loch Sloy, the biggest hydroelectric scheme in Britain.
Earth's physical resources: renewable energy - for iPod/iPhone
Introducing Loch Sloy, the biggest hydroelectric scheme in Britain.
Earth's physical resources: renewable energy - for iPad/Mac/PC
Transcript -- Introducing Loch Sloy, the biggest hydroelectric scheme in Britain.
Beginners. Andorra is one of the smallest countries in Europe. It is high up in the Pyrenees. If you look at the map of Europe, you can see that it lies exactly between France and Spain. It is a very mountainous area that has spectacular views. Though it is snow-covered for six months of the year, summers are warm and dry. Its capital is Andorra la Vella. Its area is about 174 square miles, and its population is close to 80 thousand. Though Catalan is the official language, there are many French and Spanish speakers as well. The river Valira splits into two and flows south, traveling through valleys and gorges. Several things make Andorra very famous. First, it is a tourist destination. About 12 million tourists go there every year. Wow! That's a huge amount of income and traffic for a relatively small place. Most of the tourists go to ski. A lot of mountain climbing takes place all around, especially on the highest peak which is called Coma Pedrosa at just under 10 thousand feet. Its a healthy place to live! Infact, secondly, it is the country that has the highest life expectancy: 85 years. Grammar notes. Useful vocabulary: spectacular, official, to split, destination, peak. Exs: The performance was spectacular! What music! What special effects! Their marriage is not official. They still have to sign the papers. Let's split (share) our company's profits. The last destination of the tour is the castle. The climbers went up one peak after another. They enjoyed the tremendous views. Advanced. The history of Andorra is interesting because of its geographical location. The original tribe of Andorra was apparently the Andosinos who lived in the area for thousands of years. In 1278, the government was shared between Spain and France. But then in the sixteenth century, control was handed over to France. However, in 1993, the first democratic elections were held, and the General Council of the Valleys was set up. Because Andorra is protected by both Spain and France, each has a representative on the Council. About one in five people there are Andorra citizens; the rest are mainly French or Spanish. Though tourism is the main source of income, and a tremendous one at that, there are others. Hydroelectricity is sold to Catalunya, and banking is also big business. One benefit of being a tourist in the area is that goods are tax free; it is a tax haven. Among the crops that are grown, tobacco is successfully turned into cigars and cigarettes. Many of the villagers are also farmers, having their cattle, sheep, and goats graze on the plentiful upland meadows. Grammar notes. Verbs: to hold (hold, held, held), to sell (sell, sold, sold), hydroelectricity, income, meadow. Exs: The man was held at the police station all night. Last year we sold a lot of household objects. This year, I don't know what we will sell. The dam produces an incredible amount of hydroelectricity. Finally our income has increased. It's about time! We had a wonderful picnic in the meadow. It was full of wild flowers.
© 2020-2025 Ivy Podcast Discovery LLC
