‘Logjam’ may hold up green power—NSP

A statement from the company said independent power producers who are contracted to build new power generation facilities have expressed concerns because of the volume of projects already waiting for power generation interconnection studies.

NSP wants priority for projects that have signed contracts and transmission reservations, including seven wind farm developments that were successful in a competitive solicitation completed earlier this year.

Among those is a 20-wind turbine project in the Rossway and Gulliver Cove area of Digby Neck that could generate 30 megawatts of power, enough to supply electricity to 10,000 homes, according to project developers.

Digby Wind Park is a joint project of the community-owned and operated Scotian WindFields company and its partner SkyPower Corp. That project was announced May 14 when officials said they had signed a 20-year contract with NSP.

The power utility’s request to Utility and Review Board is that the administrators of interconnection procedures be given permission to temporarily change the process for handling requests for connection to the provincial transmission system.

Once the backlog is cleared, Nova Scotia Power proposes to establish a formal stakeholder process to develop a longer term solution for generation interconnection issues.

“The current situation puts at risk our ability to enable projects that have been contracted to provide green energy to Nova Scotians,” said Rob Bennett, president and CEO of Nova Scotia Power.

A total of 26 interconnection requests, totaling more than 1,390 megawatts of generation, are currently in the line-up for study.