[Greenbuilding] Old Nuclear Power Plants? RE: Give Me Your Old, Your Tired, Your Stinky and Energy Inefficient...

Paul Eldridge paul.eldridge at ns.sympatico.ca
Sun Aug 12 23:15:23 CDT 2012


The intention of PowerShift Atlantic is to help Maritime utilities 
integrate additional wind resources within their respective power 
systems beyond what would be achievable otherwise; in simplest terms, it 
will allow member utilities to store excess wind energy in various 
thermal sinks, typically during the overnight hours when electrical 
demand is low and wind generation is often strongest.  In the process, 
it may temporarily raise the temperature of my water heater by one or 
two degrees.  Likewise, in the event of a grid emergency, it may cycle 
my tank on and off in concert with thousands of other tanks in an effort 
to keep the lights on.

This is a purely voluntary matter and I'm told that it will have no 
discernible impact on my hot water supply.  If the pilot proves 
successful and a decision is made to move forward, then customers will 
be encouraged to sign-up, possibly by way of some sort of financial 
inducement, say, a $5.00 per month credit on their power bill, or a 
discount on their tank rental (90 per cent of electric water heaters in 
New Brunswick are leased from NB Power).

I see this as a great way to reduce our region's dependence on fossil 
fuels and to strengthen our grid, so I signed-up immediately.  Perhaps 
we Canadians look at these things more favourably than our American 
counterparts, e.g., some seventy thousand Toronto Hydro customers have 
enrolled in the utility's peakSaver/peakSaver PLUS programme to date.

Cheers,
Paul


 >On 8/12/2012 8:22 PM, Paul Eldridge wrote:
 >> Plus, there are other tools that can provide the same desired results
 >> without overburdening the consumer.  For example, I've been selected by
 >> Nova Scotia Power to participate in the PowerShift Atlantic pilot which
 >> will hopefully allow Maritime utilities to actively manage domestic
 >> water heaters, storage heating systems, commercial refrigeration
 >> equipment and other controllable loads so to better accommodate excess
 >> wind energy and to make better use of our existing infrastructure.
 >
 >Not sure why anyone would rather have the electric company controlling
 >their appliances rather than controlling it themselves.  I wasn't
 >suggesting that it be done manually!
 >
 >"Let's not overburden people with choice" sounds like Big Brother to me.
 >
 >Thank You Kindly,
 >
 >Corwyn




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