Gas turbine peaker plants are a mistake

Technology respecting electricity generation, storage and grid management is rapidly advancing and displacing gas-fired peaker plants. New battery storage systems are more efficient and less costly, smooth grid flow and are non-polluting. Texas, California and Australia are replacing gas turbine peaker plants with more effective storage batteries.

Solar and wind energy generation combined with battery storage at both the grid and home/business level is the most efficient way to meet peak demand. Building expensive, outdated, polluting American gas turbines, as Manitoba Hydro is proposing, is not in Manitoba’s interest.

Premier Wab Kinew noted that a final decision to build a new turbine power plant in Brandon has not been made. I hope he’s correct, for if Manitoba Hydro already made the decision and entered binding financial obligations with GE Vernova, the PUB’s role was superfluous.

In 2025/26 Nova Scotia Power installed 3 x 50 MW Lithium-ion grid batteries with the storage capacity of over 600 MWh. Installed by Kitchener/Waterloo based Canadian Solar’s subsidiary e-Storage who have operations around the world, they accomplished this in less than two years from the approval date in June 2024. Two were operational within 18 months, the third in 24. The cost was $237 million. At Nova Scotia’s cost per MW, a 750 MW battery peaker facility would cost Hydro $1.185 billion, just 40 per cent of the proposed $3 billion gas peaker plant.

China and Australia are world leaders in implementing both solar and wind combined with battery solutions to offer 24/7/365 reliable energy to their citizens. These are more economic and more efficient than gas turbines.

Manitoba Hydro has effectively ignored the potential for business and individuals to help solve the problem. Australia offers incentives for people and businesses to install solar and battery system amounting to 30 per cent of the installation cost. Australia had 500,000 applications and installed 111,000 small-scale home batteries with 3.6 GWh storage capacity in the second quarter of 2026. They expect to have 400,000 installed by 2027. BC Hydro has similar programs.

One in 25 homes in Australia now have a home battery. This adds to the 4.9 GWh of grid batteries installed in 2025. Australia will double their grid battery storage capacity this year.

American utilities have installed 30.8 GWh of battery storage in the past six months. Gas-rich Texas doubled their grid battery storage in 2025. Compare that to Manitoba Hydro’s proposed miniscule 5 MW storage battery by 2035.

The combination of solar and wind power with storage batteries has many advantages for Manitoba. Besides cost, reliability, longevity and the speed with which they can be turned on and off (milliseconds instead of 10 minutes), they not only supply energy storage but facilitate improved grid current flow management.

With multi-year droughts, they will help with reservoir storage management. Batteries can be widely distributed, not only located in different areas of the province but ultimately to the customer in their home or business.

Like Australia, Manitoba has plenty of sunshine. Yes, Australia’s latitude is more favourable for generation during their winter months, but Manitoba has the long summer days where solar will supply more power and preserve reservoir capacity. While winter days are shorter, they are quite sunny. Cold snaps tend to be sunnier than normal with winds more consistent. Manitoba has both solar and wind potential — both are underutilized.

After years of increases, Australia’s electricity costs are falling due to the rapid rise of solar panels and battery storage. Historically Australia’s electricity costs have been much higher than Manitoba’s, but their states’ energy prices have fallen by 14 per cent in 2026.

Manitoba Hydro’s concern over the limitations of lithium-ion (LiFP) batteries in cold weather is resolved with sodium-ion batteries. Extreme temperatures have little impact on sodium-ion batteries that are already on the market.

Sodium-ion batteries are a leap forward. It’s virtually impossible for them to have thermal runaway and burn, even when damaged. Sodium-ion batteries cost 30-40 per cent less than LiFP batteries to produce, have similar energy density and work well from -40°C to +70°C. Sodium-ion batteries are not reliant on rare minerals, can be charged and discharged tens of thousands of times with only marginal degradation — which means 35-50 years of service, much longer that gas turbines. They have negligible operating costs and no GHG emissions.

Within Manitoba Hydro’s four to nine year timeline, the availability and range of sodium-ion batteries will multiply. Costs will fall further as production rises, and competition increases.

Another existing technology that adds significantly to the reliability and resilience of electrical systems allows energy to flow both ways. Home to Vehicle (H2V) and Vehicle to Home (V2H) connections provide this. Many new EVs have this capability built in.

A wise utility and province would incentivize the adoption of electric vehicles to achieve two-way power supply. Vehicles plugged in while at home or work and can supply power to the home or business during power outages and to smooth-out peak demand periods in homes and businesses and on the grid. Homes and businesses with solar panels charge the vehicle during daylight hours. Most EVs now have 50 to 80+ kWh batteries with trucks 100+ kWh, so provide more back-up power and grid support compared to home batteries; e.g. Tesla’s home battery Powerwall 3 at $12,000 each only offers 13.5 kWh per unit.

Manitoba has potential to reduce demand and with more vigorous programs helping people and businesses switch from resistance (e.g. baseboard) space heaters and water heaters to heat pumps which use only about one-third the electricity.

We’ve cut our home’s annual energy bill by some 80 per ent and emissions by over 96 per cent since 2007 by replacing windows, upgrading insulation, replacing the oil furnace with a heat pump and a heat-pump hot water tank. Installing six kW of solar panels on our home in 2025 boosted efficiency. Our electric consumption from the grid is down 60 per cent — and that includes charging our EV. Our cumulative savings are approaching $50,000 (covering most of our investments) and grow annually. Our EV has cut our vehicle emissions by 80 per cent plus and saved us another $13,000.

If more Manitobans were incentivised to do this, Manitoba’s peak demand would be lowered significantly and customers’ bills reduced.

The more distributed the electrical storage system, the more resilient and dependable it becomes. It engages customers and makes them vital partners in the system. A home or business with solar panels and battery storage should not experience power failures.

As a former MLA and vice-chair of MTS, I appreciate how challenging it is to run a province-wide utility, especially during a time of rapid technological change. MTS faced that in the mid-80’s when digital switches made existing switches obsolete overnight. Fibre optics and cell phones accelerated the disruption and revolutionized the industry. MTS survived by adopting the new technologies rapidly.

In face of available, proven technology supporting wind and solar power generation, battery storage and energy saving heat pumps, Manitoba Hydro would be wise to invest in less expensive, more efficient storage batteries and not spend $3 billion building high-cost, polluting older technology gas-fired peaker plants… regardless of where they’re manufactured.

Don Scott is a former NDP MLA, from 1981 to 1988, and was vice chair of MTS from 1986 to 1988.