U.S. history is full of ambitious projects, including the space program, the Interstate Highway System, the Alaska Highway, the post-Sputnik investment in scientific research, and the industrial mobilization during World War II, whose rationale was at least partly to confront foreign adversaries according to the NY Times.
In a recently published opinion piece former Prime Minister Jean Chretien wrote “And let’s strengthen the ties that bind this vast nation together through projects such as [a] real national energy grid.”
Will Canada’s next Prime Minister have the vision, courage, and drive to inspire Canadians to build a high-capacity national HVDC electric power grid in a coast-to-coast energy corridor?
Like the Trans-Canada highway, the national railroads, and the St. Lawrence Seaway, a coast-to-coast High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) electric power grid and pipeline corridor will not only help tie this country together politically, economically, industrially, and environmentally but provide independence and prosperity for Canadians for generations to come.
A national electric power grid will distribute low-carbon tidal and other power from the Maritimes, hydropower from Quebec and Labrador, nuclear power from Ontario, solar, wind, and natural gas generated electric power from Alberta and the prairies, hydropower from B.C. and Northwest Territories, and provide access from coast-to-coast for every other variety of low-carbon green power available,
Statistics Canada has noted a long-term decline in Canada’s GDP per capita which now ranks only 34th in the world according to the CIA’s World Factbook.
A national HVDC power grid is necessary to efficiently meet rapidly growing demand for large quantities of low-carbon electricity for transportation, heating, industry, computing centres and northern development.
HVDC electric transmission lines minimize losses. For example, China’s 3,293 km Changji-Guquan ultrahigh-voltage (1.1 million volt) direct current (UHVDC) line, built more than five years ago, is the world’s longest DC transmission system and is capable of transmitting 12,000 megawatts (MW) of electric power — a figure equal to Alberta’s total peak internal electricity load.
Availability of low-carbon hydropower will allow the eventual elimination of much of the excess emissions associated with Canada’s immense resources of fossil fuels.
Low-carbon power can be used, instead of the wasteful current practice of burning natural gas to drive gas turbines, to power coastal plants for the production and export of LNG — making such plants the greenest on Earth.
Low-carbon power can also be used to displace at least some of the four billion cu. ft. per day of natural gas wastefully burned in the oil sands for in-situ steam generation, surface mining, upgrading, refining, and for co-generation of process heat and electricity. The burning of that natural gas, which is responsible for the majority of excess greenhouse gas emissions of oil sands crude and syncrude, could then be exported as LNG where it will instead cut carbon emissions in half, and eliminate almost all the air pollution, wherever it displaces coal.
A national energy corridor containing HVDC transmission lines will also efficiently contain pipelines transporting low-carbon crude oil and refined products to an ice-free, deep-water oil port at Canso NS for exports to European and Indian markets, and pipelines transporting natural gas to LNG terminals at Saguenay QC, Saint John NB, and/or Bear Head NS for exports to our European allies from Canada’s East Coast.
It will also contain pipelines transporting crude oil, refined products, and natural gas liquids to the safest location for a deep-water oil terminal on Canada’s west coast near Prince Rupert B.C., and to transport more natural gas to new and expanded LNG plants at Kitimat B.C. for export to Southeast Asia markets.
Canada’s longest distance from north to south is 4,634 km (4,634,000 metres). Surely an energy corridor, even if a few hundred metres wide, is not an issue especially since it will largely run through northern Canada where it will hasten Canadian northern development in a warming world. One possible routing could make use of the existing TC Energy gas pipeline corridor, and the unused pipe in that corridor, from Alberta to Quebec.
Recently, we have been reminded that a northern leg of the Trans Mountain pipeline to tide water was identified many years ago but was never followed up. The existing Trans Mountain pipeline to Valemont B.C. and then extended to Kitimat and Prince Rupert could form the western leg of a national energy/pipeline corridor containing new oil and gas pipelines, an LPG pipeline, a HVDC electricity transmission line, fibre-optics cables, and a new railway and highway.
Such pipelines will provide access to diverse world markets and higher world prices – freeing Canada, the third-largest exporter of crude oil on Earth, from the tyranny of relying on just one discounted and tariffed market where almost all our oil and gas exports currently go.
The economic benefits of a coast-to-coast energy corridor transporting near-boundless and reliable low-carbon energy will propel Canada into the top rank of global economic powers.
It will be expensive — I am guessing more than $200 billion — but will create new technology, encourage new sources of low-carbon energy, create manufacturing and construction jobs, lower national carbon emissions, and provide an immense return on an investment that will provide a bright future for all Canadians.
Two thousand years ago, Romans built roads, aqueducts, ships, and ports, using essentially hand labour, across an empire rivalling Canada in size that sustained Roman civilisation for centuries.
A national energy corridor will require co-operation and joint ventures between our federal government, provincial governments, resource industries, provincial power grids, and Indigenous interests.
Are Canadians up to the challenge of creating infrastructure that will also sustain our vast country, our quality and standard of living, and our independence, for centuries?
Mike Priaro, B.Eng.Sc. (Chem. Eng.), U.W.O. ’76, former P.Eng., and Lifetime Member, Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA), worked in facilities, production, operations, and reservoir engineering, as engineering consultant, area superintendent, and engineering management in Alberta’s oil patch for 25 years for companies such as Amoco and PetroCanada.
He increased oil production from the historic Turner Valley oilfield and brought in under-balanced drilling and completion technology to drill out, complete, and test several of the highest producing gas wells ever on mainland Canada at Ladyfern B.C. He co-authored ‘Advanced Fracturing Fluids Improve Well Economics’ in Schlumberger’s Oilfield Review and developed course material for an ‘Advanced Production Engineering’ course at Southern Alberta Institute of Technology.
Mike has presented his work to Canada’s House Committee on Natural Resources in Ottawa and to the Senate Committee on Transportation and Communications in both Calgary and Edmonton. He has had work published in: JNW Energy, Feb. 27, 2017; Alberta Oil magazine, Oct. 20, 2016; World Pipelines magazine, Sept. 2016; the Macdonald-Laurier Institute in the Mar. and Apr. 2014, Feb. 2015 and Mar. 2021 editions of Inside Policy magazine; energy industry websites such as RBN Energy and OilPrice.com; Oil and Gas Journal, Jul. 17, 2014; Petroleum Technology Quarterly, Q3 2014; and in columns in the Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Montreal Gazette, Halifax Chronicle Herald, and others.
Mike has no formal connection to any oil company, environmental organization, think tank, labour organization, lobbying or special interest group, academia, or to provincial or federal politics.
NOTE: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not reflect the views, positions, or policies of Stack Technologies Ltd. or the BOE Report.