Nova Scotia (CA-NS): Near real-time data on e.g. load, wind, and imports (not lumped together!) and exports

[q--]

I found a page on the NSPower website that has information, updated roughly every 5 minutes, with more granular data than the current source: it's somewhat misleadingly called Daily Report, but under the heading "Current System Conditions" you'll find "10 minute averages" of e.g. load, wind, and imports and exports through various interconnectors that are at most five minutes old.

This is useful, among other reasons, because the current data source doesn't distinguish from where electricity is imported, so everything gets attributed to CA-NB while some is actually from Newfoundland through the interconnector named "Maritime Link", as noted here by @jarek: #6050 (comment)

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Capacity on the Newfoundland ↔ Nova Scotia "Maritime Link " interconnector is 500MW gross, though net capacity is somewhat lower at 475MW one way and 325MW the other way (page 3)

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I also tried to make sense of the other data. Cape Breton Export ("CBX") is the connection with Cape Breton island;^[1] also part of the same grid, so not really relevant for us. Onslow Import and Onslow South seem to be related to measuring electricity flows against a safety limit which should not be exceeded (2.5.2).

There are three transmission lines between mainland Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.^[1] They may or may not be bundled on the status page.

It is possible that "NS Export" is the Nova Scotia ↔ New Brunswick interconnection, as the page states "Negative flow on the NS Export interconnection indicates import into NS" implying it's a single interconnection.

Comparing the values with those provided by New Brunswick Power suggests this is the case! When I viewed both at roughly the same time, NSPower had -168.9MW for 'NS Export' and NB Power had 164MW for 'Nova Scotia'; with each using a slightly different methodology this seems very plausible.

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The the Nova Scotia ↔ New Brunswick interconnection capacity limits, as of 2022: ^[2]

From the perspective of the NS side of the NS-NB Tie, the export Total Transfer Capability (TTC) is
up to 500 MW. Import Total Transfer Capability is up to 300 MW or 27 % of gross load in Nova
Scotia, whichever is less

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Note: ^[2] has a grid map on page 4

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As an aside, here's a map of NS generation assets that seems more official than the current source (Wikipedia).

Historical data

• Hourly data about the electricity flows between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, up to > 1 month ago: https://www.nspower.ca/oasis/monthly-reports/hourly-net-energy-flows-ns-nb-interconnection

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Edit: well, it seems this somewhat duplicates #3206 (comment). Perhaps it's best to split the exchanges-related bit from that issue... At least my issue still adds some new things, like the historical hourly data on NS-NB flows, so it's not totally a duplicate

[jarek]

I think right now this would mostly be beneficial for getting the data on Newfoundland imports (Maritime Link), and back-up/confirmation for New Brunswick imports (also available from NB) and wind generation (also available from current API). But that'll still be worth it.

Most of the other data seems to be flows within the Nova Scotia grid. Onslow is a transformer station, "Flow Into Metro" surely refers to Halifax where about 35-45% of the province's population live, etc.