PEI in the Electricity Market
PEI is the only province in Canada that cannot substantially supply all its own electricity needs.
The Island does not have cost effective resources of fossil fuel or hydro resources to generate electricity on a large scale. Island nuclear generation is financially impractical due to the Island’s relatively small demand for electricity. The Island does have a forestry industry but the industry can only potentially economically support a small-scale biomass electricity facility. Our one resource capable of producing electricity on a large-scale is wind.
PEI has an excellent wind regime. Wind is PEI's only natural resource for generating electricity and we are trying to fully maximize its potential. Unfortunately the wind is somewhat unpredictable. When the wind stops blowing we cannot generate electricity. When the wind is blowing it cannot be economically stored to be used to generate electricity at a later date. Due to this intermittency of wind there are limitations on the quantities of wind generation that can be incorporated into our electricity supply mix.
Not having economic and reliable resources for electricity generation on-Island, results in Maritime Electric purchasing the majority of PEI's electricity supply from off-Island sources. These off-Island sources include long-term and short-term supply contracts.
