Natural Gas is a Solution to B.C.’s Electron Gap

When it comes to clean energy, B.C. is blessed with two major sources  — hydro power and natural gas.

It has long been a big selling point in attracting industry here, from aluminum smelters to LNG export terminals.

But in our zeal to decarbonize one with the other, we may be unduly straining our electricity supply.

The “electrify everything” imperative that is a cornerstone of B.C. climate policies only works if you have sufficient power.

And it’s becoming increasingly evident that we just can’t build the generating and transmission needed fast enough to meet the electrification requirements.

Reconsidering the framework

As the B.C. government considers the recommendations of a CleanBC review, I would urge it to also reconsider policies like the Energy Action Framework, which essentially requires full electrification of new LNG projects.

We are now at a place where so many industries are taking us up on our clean power advantage that we risk losing that advantage.

The BC government is already taking steps to limit power for other energy intensive industries like AI data centres and green hydrogen, because we simply won’t have enough power.

We could address this problem by removing some of the hobbles we have placed on natural gas.

We are constraining one clean energy source (gas) with another (electricity), in an attempt to achieve net zero targets that appear less and less achievable the closer we get to the target dates.

One could argue that requiring LNG to be fully electrified is unnecessary because we already have some of the cleanest natural gas and LNG on the planet.

B.C.’s natural advantage

Natural gas in the Montney formation is already very low in its carbon content — as low as 1%, according to some estimates, compared to the Horne River formation’s 12%. That’s just its chemistry.

B.C.’s natural gas sector also has some of the lowest methane intensities in North America.

So natural gas produced in B.C. is already low in its emissions intensity, even without full electrification.

LNG Canada is the model to follow, it seems to me. It is partially electrified, but continues to use natural gas to provide the power for the liquefaction process, which is the most energy intensive part.

Even without electric drive, it still consumes enormous amounts of power and produces some of the lowest carbon LNG in the world.

The global average emissions intensity for LNG production is 0.26 to 0.35 tonnes of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) per tonne of LNG produced. B.C. has set a benchmark of 0.16 CO2e per tonne.

LNG Canada comes in at 0.15, and that is without electric drive.

Requiring new large LNG projects like Ksi Lisims to implement electric drive promises to put an unnecessary strain on our generating capacity.

The power demand of this one project alone is estimated at 4,700 gigawatt hours (GWh) per year. Site C dam’s generating capacity is 5,100 GWh.

Industrial demand rationing

The move to displace gasoline in transportation with electric cars and natural gas in buildings with electric heat pumps is expected to add to the demand for electricity in B.C.

But the big driver of demand in B.C. is industry, mainly mines and LNG. It’s a good problem to have, but it is a problem – and there is a solution.

The B.C. government now forecasts such a huge industrial demand for power that it is now planning to ration it, through the the Energy Statutes Amendment Act.

BC Hydro recently confirmed there are 6,800 megawatts of industrial power connection requests in the queue — roughly the equivalent of six Site C dams. We are going to have to say no to a lot of those requests.

One of the big drivers of the industrial power load is the B.C. government’s Energy Action Framework, announced in 2023.

This requires all new LNG projects to pass an emissions test “with a credible plan to be net zero by 2030.”

The only way to achieve such targets would be either through large-scale carbon capture and storage, or full electrification, which includes using electric drive for the liquefaction process.

It no doubt makes more economic sense to use electrification than CCS, if you have the clean electricity to do it.

All other LNG plants around the world use natural gas to produce the power they need. B.C. is the only jurisdiction I am aware of that will require all new LNG projects to be fully decarbonized through electric power. This requires staggering amounts of electricity.

In the case of Ksi Lisims LNG, the government has admitted that BC Hydro cannot deliver the power required to fully electrify the project in time.

The government is giving Ksi Lisims a temporary pass, and will allow the project to use natural gas power until such time as electricity becomes available to switch to e-drive.

This is a tacit admission that the B.C. government can’t satisfy its own conditions.

A pragmatic path forward

Want to save a bundle of electricity that we don’t yet have? Just make this temporary deferral permanent.

The B.C. government is currently studying the recommendations of a two-person review of CleanBC. I would hope that, as part of this review, it also considers the role natural gas can play in meeting our clean energy needs.

In those cases where delivering electricity to industrial customers proves too challenging, allowing mines or LNG plants to produce their own power with natural gas could go a long way to addressing our future power load challenges.

But if it decides not to relax its constraints on natural gas power, it seems to me there may be only one solution to a potential industrial power shortage: Make friends with Alberta.

The memorandum of understanding signed last month by Ottawa and Alberta includes policies to beef up provincial interties. We might just need some of Alberta’s power.