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Sustainable Energy Commitments

At Enbridge, we believe in doing our part to contribute to the future by investing in renewable and alternative energy sources that complement our core operations and provide environmental benefits, thus helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions and addressing the issue of global climate change.

Wind Power

Enbridge is involved in four wind power projects in Canada – three of which are through our sponsored investment Enbridge Income Fund, while the fourth is being planned for Ontario. Together, these projects have a combined capacity of more than 250 megawatts (MW), enough electricity to meet the power requirements for about 90,000 homes.

Wind-generated electricity is the fastest growing sector of electricity generation in North America. Substantial technological advances and government incentives have enabled wind power projects to become economically attractive investments.

As of early 2007, Enbridge's investments, along with those of our joint venture partners, represented about 4.8 per cent of Canada's installed wind power capacity.

SunBridge and Magrath wind power

In a partnership with Suncor Energy, Enbridge Income Fund owns 50 per cent of the Enbridge-operated 11-MW SunBridge wind power project near Gull Lake, Saskatchewan.

The Fund, Suncor Energy and ACCIONA Energy are equal partners in the 30-MW Magrath wind power project, located southwest of Lethbridge, Alberta. Enbridge has contracted under a 20-year agreement to purchase one-third of the project's output to supply power to our Alberta pipeline system. A long-term contract of this type reduces risk for the wind project and provides our pipelines with a source of electricity at a stable price.

The Chin Chute wind power project

In 2006, Enbridge, in partnership with Suncor Energy and ACCIONA, opened the 30-MW Chin Chute wind power plant, located west of Taber in southern Alberta. The Fund owns a one-third interest in the $60-million project. Chin Chute is operated by Acciona Wind Energy Canada Inc., a subsidiary of Spain's ACCIONA group.

Like the Magrath project, Chin Chute consists of 20 1.5-MW wind turbines that use advanced wind power technology to combine high electrical output, low noise levels and a small footprint on the land.

Chin Chute is producing enough zero-emission electricity to power 14,000 Alberta homes and displace the equivalent of 88,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year – equal to taking about 13,000 vehicles off the road. With completion of the Chin Chute project, the Fund's share of electrical capacity from its three wind power plants is 25.6 MW.

The Ontario Wind Power project

In November 2005, Enbridge was the successful bidder for two contiguous wind-power contracts with the Ontario Power Authority.

Enbridge owns a 100-per-cent working interest in the $400-million Ontario Wind Power project that will build 110 wind turbine generators in the Municipality of Kincardine on the eastern shore of Lake Huron in Bruce County, Ontario. The project will contribute almost 182 MW of emissions-free energy to Ontario's grid.

We have executed a 20-year electricity purchase agreement with the Ontario Power Authority for all of the power produced by the project, which will be enough renewable energy to supply approximately 63,000 homes and reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to taking about 30,000 vehicles off the road.

Following environmental assessments, planning approval, public consultation and construction, Enbridge expects to begin commercial operations in 2008. Top of page

Fuel Cells – Exploring stationary fuel cell technologies

Enbridge is demonstrating that new alternative supplies of electricity do not need to take up a lot of space to improve the environment.

Three modest structures now under construction at Enbridge Gas Distribution's Toronto headquarters will soon house a fuel cell innovation that is also a global first – the Direct FuelCell®-Energy Recovery Generation (DFC®-ERG) Power Plant. This leading-edge natural gas hybrid fuel cell pilot plant has a low visual profile and takes up only 20 parking spaces at the back of the parking lot. The power plant will eventually produce 2.2 megawatts of electricity, enough to provide power to 1,500 residences.

Enbridge worked closely with government and other industry stakeholders since 2004 to develop this technology. For the pilot plant, we partnered with Fuel Cell Energy Inc. to develop a technology that would produce ultra-clean electricity from energy that is recovered from natural gas pipeline systems. This innovative energy supply can equal the environmental benefits and emission reductions offered by many renewable technologies. Once the pilot plant is built, we plan to replicate it throughout our pipeline network in Ontario, and the DFC®-ERG will be marketed to other natural gas pipeline companies throughout North America.

Phase One, currently under construction, will use a turbo expander to produce electricity as a byproduct of our day-to-day pipeline operations. This is a proven technology, similar to that of a wind turbine operation. Simply put, natural gas is normally transported across long distances at very high pressures. In order to safely distribute this gas to homes and businesses, natural gas utilities need to reduce its pressure.

They typically accomplish this by squeezing the gas through a valve. With this project, the natural gas will pass through a turbine, which rotates a generator. That generator converts the pressure energy of the natural gas into electricity and the natural gas continues to flow to homes and businesses at a safe reduced pressure.

Phase Two, scheduled to begin construction later in 2007, will integrate stationary fuel cell technology with the turbo expander to increase the environmental benefits. A chemical reaction will first convert natural gas to hydrogen, and then convert that hydrogen into additional electricity and heat energy.

The heat energy produced will reduce emissions from our existing boiler systems. The fuel cell achieves near-zero smog emissions by operating without combustion, and is so efficient that less greenhouse gas emissions are generated when compared to combustion-based power plants. The power plant's only other byproduct is water vapour. Top of page

Click to read more about fuel cells.
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The environmental benefits of fuel cells are already recognized and gaining acceptance in California, the northeastern United States, Asia and Europe. At the same time, turbo expanders are already safely producing clean electricity in Italy, Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.  The combination of these two technologies represents a global first.  They are also a tremendous example of how new technologies can increase the already significant environmental benefits linked to the use of clean natural gas.

These advanced energy technologies can complement other renewable technologies in reducing environmental impacts linked to electricity generation and transmission.  However, wide-spread industry adoption of these advanced energy technologies will only become economically feasible if governments level the playing field for all low-impact electricity supplies.

Like many renewable energy solutions, fuel cell technology requires a significant upfront capital investment, and like renewable technologies its costs are decreasing as greater industry adoption occurs.  Many jurisdictions have realized it is worth paying a premium for electricity generated through wind, biomass and solar energy programs in order to increase supplies of low-impact electricity.  If governments provide similar support for clean, advanced energy technologies, such as fuel cells, they can harvest additional supplies of predictable electricity generation that offer similar environmental benefits and increase the reliability of the grid.

Once the hybrid fuel cell can compete on a level playing field for the sale of this low-impact electricity, Enbridge believes its pipeline system alone can support enough economic investment in hybrid fuel cells to supply electricity to 35,000 homes.  This is just a small part of the much larger North American natural gas pipeline system, so the total potential is much larger if the technology is adopted by many of the North American gas utilities.  

Distributed Energy

Distributed energy sources are small-scale power generation technologies – generators fuelled by natural gas or diesel, or alternative and renewable technologies such as fuel cells and solar photovoltaic cells – located close to homes or businesses. They are an important emerging energy option that can provide customers with reliable, local energy supplies while reducing loss and lowering overall emissions of air pollutants.

Developing a market for on-site natural gas-fired generation

Enbridge Gas Distribution continued successfully in 2006 to develop a market for on-site natural-gas-fired generation in Ontario. Our work with various government and regulatory agencies over the past three years has shown positive results with the release of the latest Ontario Building Code that now references the CSA C282-05 Standard that permits utility-fed emergency generation. An early adopter is a long-term care facility, Villa Colombo Vaughan, which installed Ontario's first CHeP (combined heat and emergency power) plant. This is a 335-kW generator that develops electrical and thermal power for their facility while also meeting the CSA C282 Standard's legal requirements for emergency power loads. We worked extensively with various stakeholders to have the Villa Colombo Vaughan CHeP plant installed.

Enbridge Gas Distribution has been working closely with the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) and other stakeholders to encourage gas-fired high efficiency generation such as Combined Heat and Power (CHP), and peak-shaving demand response installations. OPA's 2006 request for CHP projects resulted in more than 240 megawatts of high-efficiency CHP generation in Enbridge Gas Distribution's service area. We helped CHP proponents determine the gas infrastructure needs of their projects and provided them with cost estimates.

Click for a report on: Supporting energy diversification in Ontario.

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Enbridge Gas Distribution has also continued to support proponents of large gas-fired “merchant generation” projects, which produce electricity for sale into the electricity grid. These plants are expected to become more important in Ontario as coal-fired generation facilities are replaced by alternative power. Gas-fired generation is clean and dispatchable, and complements alternative power by providing voltage support for grid stability and local system reliability. Over the past year, Enbridge Gas Distribution has worked on construction of the necessary infrastructure and the development of new services for these merchant-generation customers.

 

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