A new study seriously calls into question the merits of the agreement between Hydro-Québec and Énergir to use natural gas to reduce electricity demand during winter peaks.
Carried out by a team from the Écohabitation organization, this study shows that the approach favored by Hydro-Québec will cost more to all customers who join its dual-energy electricity-gas program than if they used only electric heating with heat accumulators, in addition to slowing down decarbonization with an unjustified use of natural gas.
The objective of the agreement is to convert gas-only heating systems to dual energy. Under it, Hydro-Québec will have to compensate Énergir for its lost revenue, pass on the bill to its customers, in return for which electricity demand will be reduced during peak periods by using gas rather than ‘electricity.
The more expensive gas-electricity dual energy
This agreement, approved with a rare dissent by the Régie de l’énergie, will be challenged starting this Wednesday not only by several environmental groups, but also by the Association québécoise des consommateurs industrielle d’énergie and the Conseil de l’industrie forestry in Quebec.
The conclusions of Ian Sabourin, one of the authors of the study, leave little room for interpretation: “The main observation is that the use of an electric heating system with peak management is up to at 32% less than natural gas dual energy and up to half the price of a natural gas system. »
The electric heating system he is referring to is one that combines a next-generation heat pump — which can heat a building to much colder temperatures than a conventional heat pump — and a heat accumulator. This last device, as its name suggests, accumulates the heat produced by the heat pump or any other heating device in bricks. During peak periods, it is this heat accumulated in the bricks that is used to heat the home without placing a demand on the electrical network.
“The accumulation of heat is a way of not having to build a dam and of being able to meet power needs with even intermittent energy”, argues Jean-Pierre Finet, analyst at the Regroupement des organisms Environnementales en Énergie (ROEE).
The study, entitled “Analysis of the competitive position of different heating systems in Quebec” also points out that the results of studies on heat accumulators carried out by Hydro-Quebec itself are conclusive: “It is possible, thanks to thermal accumulators, to move the electrical peak sufficiently in a 100% renewable way to eliminate the use of gas in the residential sector. »
However, the objective of the current agreement — which only affects the residential sector for the moment, but which Hydro-Québec and Énergir wish to eventually extend to the institutional and commercial sectors — aims to convert 96% of the approximately 142,000 buildings currently heated with natural gas using dual-energy electricity and gas.
Locked in carbon
The problem with this approach, according to its opponents, is that it imposes the use of natural gas, a fossil fuel that adds to greenhouse gas emissions, underlines Emmanuel Patola, of the environment committee of the Canadian Union of public service (CUPE), a union which represents the overwhelming majority of the employees of the Crown corporation.
“We have been talking about an energy transition for 20, 30 years, a transition that is more favorable to the environment and there, we are not transitioning. We lock ourselves in an energy lock. We have to stay on gas until 2050. That part is incomprehensible. If gas was a transition energy, the transition should have been made a long time ago,” says Patola.
For Jean-Pierre Finet, this idea of compensating Énergir’s losses with the money of Hydro-Québec subscribers, of using fossil energy to support electricity rather than heat accumulators and of doing so, as the study demonstrates, at a higher cost, makes no sense: “There is a better technology that makes it possible to decarbonize completely and what we are demonstrating is that it can be done not only in a technique, but also at a lower cost than the carbon solution. It would be nonsense to continue in the same direction, ”he drops.
Save Energir?
Since the announcement of the agreement, Hydro-Québec has maintained that it represents the best way to get through the winter peak and that it is the most economical way to do so.
But since the Écohabitation study shows that it is possible to achieve the three objectives of ceasing to use fossil fuels, reducing consumption during peak hours and doing everything at a better price, why would Hydro-Québec favor this solution?
“The only reason is to ensure the survival of Énergir, which is owned by the Caisse de dépôt,” says Emmanuel Patola without hesitation.
Jean-Pierre Finet agrees: “It’s more of a rescue program for the value of Énergir’s assets than a serious decarbonization program. What they absolutely want to avoid is the death spiral for Énergir. »
another way
According to him, the billions that Hydro-Québec is about to swallow up in this agreement should instead be redirected to subsidize the installation of heat pumps in all customers who have a gas heating system, then to replace this system with an accumulator. of heat when it reaches the end of its life.
In addition, he asks Quebec not only to withdraw its support for dual energy electricity and gas, but even to adopt regulations for natural gas heating appliances similar to the one that prevails for oil heating, i.e. in other words prohibit their installation and, eventually, their repair.
Also, he believes that heat storage should be subsidized in all new constructions “because every day, houses are built with electric baseboards which add power needs that could be avoided” , this type of heating does not allow the accumulation of heat like a central system which can then distribute it throughout the house.