Fwd: [cleanair-l] Securing Toronto's electricity future

[Guest guest]

> Toronto is one of the largest cities in North

> America that has no

> significant electricity generation capacity within

> its own vicinity – the

> city generates just 1.2% of the power used within

> its boundaries while using

> close to 20% of the power produced in Ontario.

>

> Currently, the central city south of Eglinton

> (between Hwy. 427 and Victoria

> Park) receives almost its entire electricity supply

> via two Hydro One

> transmission corridors. This leaves the city highly

> reliant on large

> centralized supply sources outside of the city, such

> as the Pickering and

> Darlington nuclear stations and the giant Nanticoke

> coal-fired station on

> Lake Erie.

>

> This tenuous power situation has led to two

> proposals to build new

> generation facilities on the eastern waterfront:

>

>

>

> * The Portlands Energy Centre (PEC) is a joint

> venture of Ontario

> Power Generation and TransCanada that is proposing

> to build a 550 megawatt

> (MW) combined-cycle natural gas power plant near the

> site of the mothballed

> Hearn Generating Station.

>

>

> * The Toronto Waterfront Clean Energy Centre (TWCEC)

> is a joint

> project of Toronto Hydro and Constellation Energy

> that is proposing to build

> a 291 MW simple-cycle natural gas plant within the

> existing Hearn structure.

>

>

>

> Our new Air Quality Issues fact sheet, Meeting

> Toronto’s Electricity Supply

> Needs: A comparison of the Portlands Energy Centre

> and the Toronto

> Waterfront Clean Energy Centre, looks at these two

> proposals in terms of

> energy efficiency; air emissions; contribution

> towards the phase-out of

> coal-burning at Nanticoke; and contribution towards

> increasing Toronto’s

> security of electricity supply.

>

> We recommend that energy efficiency and conservation

> initiatives that are

> part of both proposals be aggressively pursued no

> matter which one actually

> proceeds, and that the City of Toronto work with

> Enwave Energy Corporation

> to ensure that the new plant can be made as

> efficient as possible by serving

> a district heating and/or cooling system through co-

> or tri-generation

> technology.

>

> We also recommend that the Ontario Power Authority

> consider both the net

> emission reductions and power replacement potential

> of the proposals

> vis-à-vis the Nanticoke Generating Station, Canada’s

> No. 1 air polluter and

> a major contributor to smog throughout Southern

> Ontario.

>

> The fact sheet is available for viewing on our

> website at

> www.cleanairalliance.org

> <http://www.cleanairalliance.org/> .

>

> Please pass this message on to your friends.

>

> Thank you.

>

> Jessica Fracassi

> Communications & Membership Manager

> Ontario Clean Air Alliance

> 402-625 Church St, Toronto M4Y 2G1

> Phone: 416-926-1907 ext. 245

> Fax: 416-926-1601

> Email: contact

> Website: www.cleanairalliance.org

>

> _____

>

> The Ontario Clean Air Alliance is a coalition of

> health, environmental and

> consumer organizations, faith communities, unions,

> utilities, municipalities

> and individuals working for cleaner air through a

> coal phase-out and the

> shift to a renewable electricity future. Our

> partner organizations

> represent more than six million Ontarians.

>

> To or to

> <http://www.cleanairalliance.org/getin> this

> list please

>

>

>

>