Why is OC Transpo installing natural gas generators for a zero-emission bus project?

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Likewise, if the demand of charging hundreds of e-buses proves to be too much for the grid, Villeneuve said “the generators are not intended to be used as permanent power.”

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The city added that it was working closely with Hydro Ottawa to ensure the power grid could meet the expected demand of the St-Laurent garage.

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OC Transpo headquarters on St-Laurent Boulevard in Ottawa. OC Transpo is installing generators to charge its electric buses. Photo by Tony Caldwell /POSTMEDIA

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What’s the environmental impact?

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Considering the generators will run on natural gas, which is a fossil fuel, the generators will produce greenhouse gases.

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If both of the four-megawatt generators run 30 hours a year, they would produce roughly 132 to 140 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, according to online calculations.

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However, emissions from the generators would be significantly reduced when compared to when OC Transpo’s bus fleet was entirely diesel and it produced up to 125,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually, according to a 2020 report.

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The city didn’t provide any specific details as to how it was monitoring the environmental impacts of the generators when asked by the Ottawa Citizen.

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“Environmental impacts are assessed in association with the applicable provincial and municipal requirements. This includes impacts such as noise and air emissions,” Villeneuve wrote.

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Are local councillors concerned?

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Councillors don’t seem to be raising the alarm about the idea of generators at OC Transpo’s garage.

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Alta Vista Coun. Marty Carr, who sits on both the transit and environment committees and has the garage within her ward, says she has no concerns about the generators after information was included in city reports starting in 2024.

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“As the ward councillor, I receive updates on the construction and have no concerns,” she wrote in an email to the Ottawa Citizen.

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Stittsville Coun. Glen Gower, who chairs the transit committee, said the generators weren’t a significant topic of discussion from the report. He recalled the committee members mostly sought reassurance of a backup plan in case of an emergency outage.

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“Overall, the benefits to electrifying the fleet and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from vehicle operations far outweighs and emissions from the secondary/backup system,” Gower wrote in an email. So I don’t have any major concerns at this time.”

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Did the city consider other forms of power that weren’t reliant on fossil fuels?

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John Kirkwood, president of Ottawa Renewable Energy Co-op, says he’s worked with many large companies to develop renewable energy initiatives and to build solar, wind and battery storage projects.

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“We don’t think you need to be relying on fossil fuels to do that,” Kirkwood said. “You can do it cost-competitively with battery systems, and then there are other types of storage systems that are longer-term.”

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However, the city said it determined early on that renewable resources like solar panels wouldn’t be an adequate power source for the electric bus program.

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“They are intermittent, require energy storage, and take up significant space,” Villeneuve said. “The local infrastructure designed by Hydro Ottawa is engineered to fully and safely handle the power demands of the e-bus fleet under normal operating conditions.”

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