Rising electricity supplies and short-term lulls in power demand have left grid operators in Ontario, Canada, considering the inopportune step of temporarily shutting down reactors to regulate power supplies.
At an industry event, the head of the province's Independent Electricity System Operator said the organization may not be able to avoid temporary nuclear plant shutdowns in the future as surplus baseload generation periodically forces the sale of electricity to neighboring provinces. The Ottawa Citizen reported Ontario power generators paid $35 million in the first half of 2011 under “negative pricing” to persuade neighboring provinces to accept periods of surplus power that have become increasingly common since 2005.
Bad economic conditions, a transition in industry from manufacturing to resource processing, seasonal demand changes and conservation measures contribute to the surpluses, as will the refurbishment of two disused reactors at the Bruce nuclear plant. The surpluses can last only a handful of hours, so the lengthy process to bring a reactor back online is cumbersome for matching power supply and demand. If the surpluses of baseload generation continue in the coming years, the province might also have to reconcile power demand with a proposal to build a new nuclear plant in Ontario.