Independent power producers are quickly becoming important additions to the electricity grid in British Columbia, especially when it comes to renewable energy like wind. In this post we’ll have a look at what independent power producers (IPP’s) mean to British Columbia and the success of one of our customers, Quality Wind in Tumbler Ridge.
In British Columbia, the government has designated IPP’s with the generation of clean renewable energy—not BC Hydro. This means that privately help corporations or cooperatives can generate electric power for sale back into BC Hydro’s grid for consumption by end users. Right now, BC Hydro has over 70 electricity purchase agreements with IPP’s from all over the province and who provide energy from a variety of fuel sources, including:
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- non-storage hydro (run-of-river)
- gas-fired thermal
- biomass
- storage hydro (dams)
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- biogas
- municipal solid waste
- energy recovery generation
- wind
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Domino Highvoltage is a major supplier of transmission parts for Quality Wind in Tumbler Ridge, an independent power producer owned by Capital Power in British Columbia. In March of 2010, Quality Wind signed a 25-year Electricity Purchase Agreement with BC Hydro to supply clean, renewable energy.
As a key supplier of transmission parts to Quality Wind, we were pleased to see it completed on time and under budget, beginning commercial operations in November of 2011. The wind farm includes 79 Vestas V90 and V100 wind turbines, in addition to 13 miles of 230kV, single circuit transmission line and a conductor configuration of single 795 ACSR Drake. According to Capital Power, this one project will generate enough clean electricity to meet the average annual needs of approximately 43,000 homes. Imagine how much energy 70 of these projects can produce together.
We love to support these types of projects and independent power producers. If you are planning a project, get in touch with us to see how we can help supply parts or lead your engineering, procurement and construction processes.
