Charting a different course for Centra Gas

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/02/2025 (209 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Every time a new gas pipeline gets installed to service a new home or business, Manitoba Hydro and its subsidiary, Centra Gas, moves further and further into a dim future.

While estimates vary, no one who watches the climate catastrophe that is upon us thinks we will be heating with natural gas in 25 years, far shorter than the amortization period of each new pipeline, which is more like 80 years.

The same is true of the central storage and distribution infrastructure. It is massive, costly and built for a long-term future. The economics of solar, wind and battery storage get more and more compelling with each new technological improvement.

Texas, that famous fossil fuel state, has the fastest-growing wind and solar with battery backup of any state. Global investment in clean, renewable energy in 2024 was double that of fossil fuel, not because there is a commitment to sustainability, but because shareholders will make more money.

The data are there for all to see … fossil fuels may last a while longer, even with their huge environmental cost, but they are yesterday’s story, not tomorrow’s. The more we continue to invest in yesterday’s solutions, the more these investments become stranded assets. Assets that will have no value and ones that ratepayers will absorb.

For our province, the economic case is even clearer.

Why do we ship billions of dollars every year to Alberta and Saskatchewan for oil and gas to run our cars and heat our buildings when those dollars could be used here in Manitoba supporting wind, solar and the wonderful battery that is our enormous storage lakes?

Why would we continue to ship power from our hydro-electric energy to the U.S. when we can use it here to electrify our own economy? Why are we still hooking up thousands of new homes and businesses to natural gas every year, when our capacity for much more efficient geothermal heating and cooling (GT) is ignored? The provincial government’s commitment to 5,000 GT installations by 2028 is laudable, but far too small.

Why are we not moving quickly to widen the use of geothermal and air-source heat pumps in new buildings of all sizes?

There are several key reasons for this. First, there is none of the efficiencies of scale which could be realized with a sharp increase in the numbers of installations. Because we have not mandated moving away from a carbon-based energy supply, the industry is scattered and inefficient.

Secondly, our building codes and approval mechanisms are slow and cumbersome and often put barriers in the way of innovation.

Third, until very recently, Manitoba Hydro has had a strong bias against GT and air-to-air heat pumps if there is gas available nearby. This is simply Hydro acting to protect its monopoly and ensure new customers, even though the climate change writing is on every wall. The Nordic countries, with a climate much like ours, have been aggressively installing G-T for years now, and Sweden has over 700,000 such installations in that country of 11 million.

Finally, there has not been a government willing to mandate a course away from natural gas in a carefully planned process. Remember, we got our hydro and our natural gas utilities, which we take for granted, over many years, with much careful planning. Forging a new course will also take that same planning to ensure it is done well, efficiently and economically.

Enter Centra Gas. Here is a well-run, traditional utility with skilled staff, appropriate heavy equipment, decades of experience with Manitoba soil conditions, weather and its equally skilled building trades. However, Centra cannot fail to see the climate writing on the wall … a slowly darkening future with stranded assets and a heavy loss in revenue. The longer we wait, the more costly it gets for Centra.

Every time a heat pump is installed in an existing gas-serviced location, Centra faces a loss of regular income as well as a large decommissioning cost. These costs snowball into an increasing burden on existing customers for maintenance of an old shrinking system.

Picture instead a new Centra Energy company — a company with a three- to five-year mandate to phase out all new natural gas connections and build Manitoba’s GT future. The key is the mandate … Centra already has much of what else is needed.

The new company needs to be structured as a geothermal utility — a one-stop shop that delivers heat just the same way it now delivers gas. Centra has a stable corporate structure and good reputation, skilled staff, billing systems, equipment and they know the local suppliers and installers. After the phase-out of new gas connections is completed, the company can move to the conversion of older homes and other buildings to geothermal.

Opportunities to partner with First Nations and remote communities should be ramped up to create long-term energy equity and lasting skilled jobs in the process. AKI Energy has shown the way already, but much more can be done in these high-need communities to reduce their costs of heating.

The conversion of gas systems to geothermal and air-source heat pumps will save good jobs, create long-term sustainable ones and create a bright future for Centra. It is a chance to repatriate monies that buy carbon polluting natural gas from outside Manitoba.

It is a chance to partner in new ways with Manitoba Hydro in a carefully planned conversion to new clean energy, just as we did from oil-lanterns to electric light across rural Manitoba in the early 1940s and as we moved from coal to natural gas in the late 1950s. This is a legacy moment for our government. Our children living in a fossil-free future will remember.

Tim Sale is a former member of the Manitoba Legislative Assembly.