If this Brampton gas plant expands production, can the city still meet its emissions targets?


CBC
Sat, November 4, 2023 

The Goreway Power Station, located near Highway 407 in Brampton, is an 875-megawatt natural gas power plant. (Goreway - image credit)

The company behind one of Ontario's biggest privately owned gas plants wants to expand production, but critics say the environmental impacts aren't worth it.

Capital Power, which owns the Goreway Power Station in Brampton's east end, is already projecting to more than double the amount of greenhouse gases it emits by 2032.

Now, the company is seeking a 40-megawatt upgrade to its 875-megawatt facility, which requires the replacement of a variety of parts within the gas turbine. That upgrade would see the station pump out an additional 48,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases every year.

The request comes as four nuclear power units that supply nine per cent of Ontario's electricity are down for refurbishment, and as the demand for electricity in the province is projected to double over the next 25 years.

Expansion could impact city's emissions targets

If approved, Ontario Clean Energy Alliance chair Jack Gibbons says the upgrade could jeopardize Brampton's goal of reducing corporate greenhouse gas emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 — a target the city hopes to achieve through electrifying public transit and replacing natural gas with renewable natural gas sources.

"This will mean more asthma attacks in Brampton and more climate damage everywhere," said Gibbons.

The upgrades will improve the plant's efficiency at the same time as they increase its capacity to 4.5 per cent, according to a September environment review report from Capital Power. However, per that report, even with better efficiency, the Goreway Power station is still expected to release, on average, 1.4 million tonnes of emissions each year — 3.2 per cent higher than estimated if the upgrades do not go forward.

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown said he shared his concerns about how the upgrade would impact the city's ability to meet its emissions targets with both Capital Power and the province.

The city is "getting different responses," he said. "It lacks clarity."

Brampton mayor Patrick Brown told CBC he raised concerns about Capital Power's plans to upgrade one of the biggest natural gas plants in Ontario, but hasn't received a clear response about how that expansion might affect Brampton.

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown told CBC Toronto he raised concerns about Capital Power's plans to upgrade one of the biggest natural gas plants in Ontario, but hasn't received a clear response about how that expansion might affect Brampton. (CBC )

Brown says the province has presented the plant upgrades as an "emergency valve" that Ontario's Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) can access during peak demand.

Gibbons and other critics continue to pressure the Brampton city council to pass a resolution rejecting the proposal, however Brown said, "it will be a provincial decision."

Ford government fires up more natural gas

As IESO spokesperson Martin Holmsen explains it: there are currently "no like-for-like replacements with similar operating flexibility for natural gas generation."

That means the IESO is expecting to rely on natural gas to meet demand for electricity continuing into the 2030s.

Holmsen says strong economic development and the electrification of the broader economy are driving up demand by two per cent each year, and increasing regional needs. At the Goreway plant, capacity went from 12 per cent in 2017 up to 30 per cent in 2023.

"When the world is on fire, the last thing we should be doing is burning more fossil gas to produce electricity," Gibbons said.

Jack Gibbons from Ontario's Clean Air Alliance says if Capital Power's proposal to expand production at Goreway Power station is approved, it will put Brampton's emissions target at risk.

Jack Gibbons from Ontario's Clean Air Alliance says if Capital Power's proposal to expand production at Goreway Power station is approved, it will put Brampton's emissions target at risk. (Submitted by Jack Gibbons)

In 2018, the Ford government scrapped 750 renewable energy projects, saying it would save provincial ratepayers millions. Instead, provincial documents revealed in 2019 that it cost the government $230 million.

If that hadn't happened, Gibbons said, there wouldn't be such reliance on natural gas to meet the "urgent demand."

"Unfortunately, the Ford government hasn't contracted for one KW hour of wind or solar electricity during the last five years. This is just wrong," he said.

"We have a premier driven by an ideological hatred for wind and solar energy, which are our lowest cost and cleanest sources."

In 2019, when it became clear the government paid to scrap the projects, Ford told a news conference he was "so proud of that" decision, saying, "if we had the chance to get rid of all the wind mills we would."

Gas- and oil-fired generation provided four per cent of Ontario's electricity supply in 2017. That figure reached 10.4 per cent in 2022 and is expected to climb as the province solicitd bids to expand gas-fired electricity generation..

"Natural gas is the insurance policy that guarantees the lights stay on and prices stay down," said energy ministry spokesperson Michael Dodsworth in a statement.

The expansion will mark Ontario's biggest increase in the gas-fired power supply in more than a decade — since the previous Liberal government scrapped two gas plants in Mississauga and Oakville at a cost theauditor general pegged around $1 billion.

CAPITAL POWER IS A PUBLICLY TRADED OFFSHOOT OF EPCOR (EDMONTON POWER)