BC Hydro adds 19 projects to grid: More power contracts to be awarded by month's end

Posted March 12th, 2010
in
Vancouver Sun
Page: C2
Date: Friday, March 12, 2010
Byline: Scott Simpson  

BC Hydro is awarding power purchase agreements to 19 projects that were proposed in response to its clean-power call for new sources of electricity.

There are 14 run-of-river hydroelectric projects and five wind projects on the list, which Energy Minister Blair Lekstrom estimates has a capital investment value of $3 billion.

Combined, the projects will annually generate 2,400 gigawatt hours of electricity, representing enough power to supply 218,000 homes, Hydro said Thursday in a news release.

Hydro is still reviewing 28 other projects that answered the clean call when it was announced in 2008, and expects to announce by the end of the month which additional projects it has selected to reach its target of 5,000 gigawatt hours per year.

That's roughly the amount of electricity Hydro needs to meet the province's order to make B.C. electricity self-sufficient by 2016.

The projects are scattered around the province, from the Fraser Valley to northern Vancouver Island to northeast and northwest B.C.

Cloudworks Energy, which is already a successful independent power developer in B.C., has been approved for three run of river projects in the eastern Fraser Valley. Creek Power Inc. was approved for three run-of-river projects at Pemberton.

Capital Power Corporation has the single largest project, a 434-gigawatt wind farm project proposed for Tumbler Ridge.

"We're not done yet," Hydro acting president and CEO Bev Van Ruyven said in an interview. "This is just our first wave of announcements.

"Some proponents have expressed concern about the length of time -- two years -- it has taken Hydro to go from soliciting bids to awarding energy purchase agreements.

"Part of our due diligence is doing a very thorough risk assessment," Van Ruyven noted, adding that Hydro started with a list of 68 projects. She recalled that the attrition rate had been high among successful bidders in earlier calls.

She would not disclose the rates Hydro will pay the proponents for their power.

However, Hydro will make a filing to the B.C. Utilities Commission next month, and make publicly available the price range for all projects accepted in the call.

"As we move forward into the new field of clean energy ... it's also about affordable power," Lekstrom said.

"It's one of the competitive advantages we have here in British Columbia."

Melissa Davis, executive director of B.C. Citizens for Public Power, predicted electricity rates will go up more than they would if BC Hydro were acting as developer of new power.

"Today's announcement seems to reinforce the government's intention to move full-steam ahead in its plan to privatize B.C.'s electricity sector," Davis said.

"Widespread public protest appears to have fallen on deaf ears."

NDP energy critic John Horgan questioned the government's logic, noting that "we have a massive purchase from 19 companies at a time when we are staring down the barrel of a 29-per-cent rate increase [over three years].

"We have potentially hundreds of millions of dollars of long-term liabilities without any understanding of what our long-term needs are going to be."

Paul Kariya, executive director of the Independent Power Producers association of B.C., said the clean call and future calls will contribute $8 billion in economic growth to B.C. and up to 87,000 construction jobs.

He said the current call will generated $3 billion in capital investment and 3,000 person-years of employment during construction.