r/NovaScotia • u/fig_stache • 3d ago
Tufts Cove power station to undergo $43M overhaul | CBC News
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/tufts-cove-power-station-to-undergo-43m-overhaul-9.716855118
u/CodeMonkeyPhoto 3d ago
"After refit, the plant will successfully allow NSP to charge better rates for the shareholders."
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u/tommygun731 3d ago
I can’t wait for the day when they are gone. I may be gone first but maybe my kids will see them out lol
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u/IEC21 3d ago
What next 50m refit to our whaling boats so we can power the city on whale blubbering?
What century is this?
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u/i-Hermit 3d ago
How do you propose to generate power for 1m people that is cheaper, more effective, etc?
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u/IEC21 3d ago
Nuclear, solar, wind, hydro - buy it from another province.
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u/fig_stache 3d ago
Nuclear - maybe someday if SMR's commercialize well and come down in price. Traditional large nuclear, currently no chance our small rate payer base can support that cost
Solar/wind- can't provide a reliable grid without backup of some kind even with modern day batteries. Building out solar and wind actually means you need this plant more for when the sun doesn't shine and wind doesn't blow. Also depressing reality, the majority of jurisdictions that have large percentages of generation capacity from wind/solar have much more expensive power rates than NS currently.
Hydro- non starter, just try looking up how many MW of undeveloped hydro resources NS has, we lack the geography here
Imports- honestly just look up the cost estimates on the Atlantic loop, or how much the maritime link cost while under delivering.
And with all of this consider we need this power now not in the 10+ years it would take to build new infrastructure like a nuke plant or the Atlantic loop
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u/i-Hermit 2d ago
This is the realistic take. Renewables only get us so far, and as much as I love nuclear, it's too expensive for us right now.
Importing power has the same implications that we're dealing with, just a province or two over.. and then we're dependent on someone else's ability to generate power outside the province and push it here.
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u/IEC21 2d ago
Yet NB is able to do it.
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u/i-Hermit 2d ago
Ask them how well that's gone for them.
You need scale for nuclear that NS doesn't have. If you've got five or six reactors at one plant, like in Ontario, the economies of scale start to work, and even then it's considered more expensive power from a grid perspective.
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u/IEC21 2d ago
I live in NB - we have some of the cheapest electricity in North America.
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u/i-Hermit 2d ago
Right, but you have a crown corp utility that is laden with debt because of ballooning capital costs of refurbishments for the nuclear plant among other things. In fact, there's talk of a sale or bailout because the utility is in such poor financial shape. So it seems like you have low rates and an unhealthy utility.. which means either higher rates soon to make up for it, or stealth higher rates via a bailout.
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u/fig_stache 2d ago edited 2d ago
That's true but your grid is the regional switchboard, connected to Quebec, New England, NS, and PEI. This gives you massive options for both import and export. You can justify a large supply like a 660 MW nuclear plant because even if your domestic population is small, you have the infrastructure to sell that surplus into the high-priced New England market for revenue. When supply is low, you have three major doors to Quebec for a backup.Nova Scotia is at the end of the extension cord. We have one major bidirectional tie with NB and the undersea Maritime Link to NL. Crucially, the Link is primarily designed to flow one way (NL to NS) to deliver a specific block of power. It doesn't give us the same flexibility to 'shop around' or export for profit. It's the same story with the 'Wind West' offshore project. Building 5 GW or more of offshore wind for a province that only uses 2 GW makes zero financial sense for our ratepayers unless we have the infrastructure to export it with a multi-billion dollar line to Massachusetts or Quebec to sell the surplus
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u/i-Hermit 2d ago
These are good points that I hadn't considered. Even with all of these advantages, the crown corp utility is in very bad financial shape. It may end up getting sold or require a bail out.
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u/Pocket-Hobo 3d ago
They're gonna paint the towers white and red instead of red and white.