NB Power claims the province needs a new fossil (‘natural’) gas-fired power plant. If built, the new power plant would be the largest new energy generator on the grid in decades. It would emit new greenhouse gasses – just when we desperately need to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Much better alternatives do exist.
In July an American company, ProEnergy Holdings, announced its intention to build a 500-megawatt (MW) gas-fired power plant in Centre Village, north of Sackville. NB Power invited the company into the province and intends to purchase power from the proposed plant.
Building a new fossil fuel power plant runs directly contrary to the need to reduce carbon emissions in the face of a growing climate crisis. Alternative approaches – battery energy storage systems (BESS) and demand-side flexibility (DSF) – are effective, do not emit GHGs or toxic emissions and cost less.
NB Power claims this gas-fired power plant will prevent grid failures, but these power plants are far from perfect. Just ask the people who suffered during recent gas-fired power plants failures: deaths in Texas in February 2021, power shortage in Alberta in January 2024 and a massive outage in Spain in April 2025.
NB Power claims its grid needs a new 400 MW power supply to (1) meet the peak power demands of a growing population, (2) integrate solar and wind power, and (3) ensure grid reliability. All three can be met using modern storage and demand-side flexibility techniques.
Better alternatives to fossil gas
Power demand peaks in New Brunswick, occuring in the coldest winter mornings, are normal and predictable. The peaks routinely go above 2,500 MW and can exceed 3,000 MW.
Battery storage provides an economical way to save surplus energy for those peaks. Electric systems operators in many jurisdictions charge their storage systems with cheap wind and solar energy that is then discharged as needed to meet the peak demand.
Demand-side flexibility, another GHG emissions-free way to manage peaks and directly reduce costs for customers, comes in many forms such as time-of-day rates. The most convenient is an automatic service, that, when authorized by the customer, makes small adjustments in the timing of high-power appliances such as electric vehicle chargers and hot water heaters. In most cases the only thing the customer notices is the credit on their power bill received for allowing these timing tweaks.
Such small adjustments, unnoticeable at the household level, can provide huge system benefits. All the hot water heaters in New Brunswick turned on at the same time would draw almost 1,000 MW of power. An automated service could stagger the power needs of individual heaters to ensure total demand is lower during peak times while keeping water hot.
An automated service could also shift the timing of EV charging to reduce power demand peaks and still have EVs charged each morning. Based on the estimated 3,500 EVs in New Brunswick, peak demand could be lowered by as much as 35 MW simply by adjusting when they charge. Those potential savings will grow with the increase in EVs each year. When 10 per cent of the vehicles in New Brunswick are EVs then the savings could be over 500 MW! Also, electric vehicles could go a step further by using vehicle-to-grid (V2G) to provide power back to the system during a demand peak. V2G helps EV owners pay for their cars while reducing the cost of electricity for everyone.
Integrating storage with wind and solar energy
Storage is highly effective at integrating wind and solar since it can instantly switch from producing power to saving energy. By December 2024, 160,000 MW of battery storage was installed globally, with installations projected to continue to grow rapidly. Battery storage installations close to home include the 250 MW Oneida Energy Storage project in Ontario, 300 MW by the end of 2025 in Maine and a 6 MW Saint John Energy battery storage system used to integrate the Burchill windfarm. Ontario plans to have almost 3,000 MW of battery storage installed by 2030.
Grids are reliable with renewables and storage
A huge benefit of battery storage is its ability to automatically respond within milliseconds to grid needs such as frequency regulation and voltage support. In Australia, solar and battery storage have been called the “new baseload,” cheap 100 per cent available power. In California battery storage was the largest provider of frequency regulation services in 2024.
Grid reliability is always a concern during major storms. A four-day storm could potentially cause the outage or disconnection of a major power plant. During a storm decentralized windfarms would continue produce power, likely so much that some would be stored for later use.
Grids are better decentralized
When power production is focused on a few large power plants a single plant failure or disconnection from the grid could cause a widespread power outage during a major storm. A decentralized grid – with smaller power producers and storage systems spread across a region or the whole province – can provide more reliability than having a few large power plants. It is much easier to temporarily compensate for the failure of a 7 MW wind turbine than the loss of a 500 MW power plant.
Another bonus of a decentralized grid is that more communities can get involved in developing these projects and experience the employment and financial benefits these installations can bring.
Renewable builds cost less than new fossil gas plants
What is the most cost-effective way to add more electricity to meet the needs of our growing population? According to NB Power’s own 2023 Integrated Resource Plan, electricity from the proposed gas-fired turbine would cost $418 per megawatt hour (MWh). Electricity from windfarms and solar arrays would only cost $47/MWh and $80/MWh respectively. Windfarms and solar arrays are the hands-down winners when it comes to cost, even after factoring in energy storage costs.
Manitoba Hydro recently proposed building a $1.4 billion 500 MW gas-fired power plant similar to the Centre Village proposal. That cost does not include fuel and staffing the plant; neither is required for a battery storage system.
According to BloombergNEF a 6-hour 400 MW battery storage system would cost $390 million. A 6-hour 400MW battery storage system could provide any level of power from 0 to 400 MW. The less power needed the longer the charge would last. For example, it could produce 100 MW of power for 24 hours.
A 2024 report by the Clean Energy Alliance using the state of Maine as a case study concluded that a battery storage option would be as effective at handling peaks as gas-fired power and cost less.
The cost of demand-side flexibility services is generally quite low because the electronic control devices are simple and inexpensive and no energy needs to be created or stored. For example, a wireless hot water heater control costs about $150.
Use a GHG emissions-free solution
Battery storage and demand-side flexibility operate without GHGs or toxic emissions and would effectively and economically meet NB Power’s needs. Tethering New Brunswickers to an expensive fossil-fuel power source for 25 years just doesn’t make sense given these available alternatives.
New Brunswick does not need another gas-fired power plant. Together battery storage and demand-side flexibility can provide an effective, less costly and emissions-free solution for New Brunswick’s electricity grid. Build wind, solar and storage, not emissions.
Tom McLean is a member of the Core Group of the Coalition of Responsible Energy Development in New Brunswick (crednb.ca).
