The P.E.I. Green Party’s energy critic says Maritime Electric’s plan to expand its power generation on the Island through the use of fossil-fuel technology is shortsighted.

Peter Bevan-Baker said he was “very disappointed and not entirely shocked” to learn that the energy utility is applying to spend $427 million on a combustion turbine, a battery for energy storage systems, and internal combustion engines.

“Maritime Electric is not necessarily known for being a progressive company when it comes to looking to… the energy future,” Bevan-Baker told Island Morning host Mitch Cormier on Friday.

“We see other jurisdictions around the world embracing new clean energy when it comes to generation and storage. And yet we are considering investing half a billion dollars in some diesel generators.”

Maritime Electric pulls around 75 per cent of its power from other provinces, primarily New Brunswick. Last year, P.E.I.’s grid recorded a new peak load of 359 megawatts.

The utility said buying the equipment it’s seeking approval for should be cheaper in the long run than continuing to buy power off-Island.

Maritime Electric, a wholly owned subsidiary of Fortis Inc. that is subject to provincial regulation on P.E.I., has submitted an application to the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission to make the purchase.

Bevan-Baker said he’s in favour of P.E.I. producing more of its own energy rather than relying on its neighbours, but he said there’s a cleaner way to do it in both the short and long term.

Green Party energy critic Peter Bevan-Baker says he’ll be requesting a meeting with Gilles Arsenault, the province’s new environment minister, to discuss Maritime Electric’s proposal. (CBC)

“I have no issue with us trying to create more energy independence here on Prince Edward Island. But to do that in one fell swoop by spending half a billion dollars on technology which was being outlawed and abandoned 20, 30 years ago is not the way to go,” he said.

“What’s the point in plugging my electric car into the socket if the energy that’s coming to feed my battery is [generated] by burning diesel? We may as well just put a diesel engine in the car.”

‘We could make gradual, sensible investments’

The cost of the new equipment will be passed on to customers eventually, but the utility said it’s too early to tell what that could mean for an average monthly bill.

In an interview this week with CBC News: Compass host Louise Martin, P.E.I. Premier Dennis King said the province will be an intervenor in the IRAC hearings on Maritime Electric’s application, “to make sure ratepayers are represented at the hearings and in the discussion and to make sure that we’re doing everything we possibly can do to keep rates as low as we can possibly keep them, as well as making sure we meet our targets for climate reduction.”

While the province hopes to eventually reach net zero when it comes to carbon output, the grid is being challenged by the number of people swapping from oil to electric heat pumps.

Maritime Electric CEO Jason Roberts told CBC News this week that the effects could be dire if the upgrades don’t happen, especially if there is another cold snap as there was in February 2023 and wind farms in the province are too cold to operate.

That’s where Bevan-Baker said the provincial government needs to step in and help Islanders and communities store more of the renewable energy they generate from solar and wind in battery reserves.

Bevan-Baker said he’ll be requesting a meeting with Gilles Arsenault, the province’s new environment minister, to discuss Maritime Electric’s proposal.

“Ultimately government has the ability — and I would say the responsibility — to make sure that we have a modern utility that’s providing clean, green, affordable, reliable energy for Islanders, and Maritime Electric is really falling down on that, so government has to take the lead here,” he said.

“We could make gradual, sensible investments now so that we have a reliable, clean, green, affordable energy future for Prince Edward Island, long into the future, rather than doing something which takes us backwards and indebts future generations for decades to come.”

Timelines vary on when the new equipment would arrive once its purchase is approved, but the utility hopes to have everything up and running by 2030.