PEOPLE POWER is a six-chaper 50 minute DVD designed to help activists launch grassroots community-based campaigns to protect public power and the environment.
BC Hydro selects four new projects under Clean Power Call program: Two run-of-river projects in Squamish among agreements awarde
Posted April 1st, 2010
Page: E2
BC Hydro has selected the second group of projects to be awarded electricity purchase agreements under the clean-power call for new sources of electricity.
The agreements announced Wednesday will generate more than 450 gigawatt hours (GWh) of clean, reliable electricity annually, enough to power Hydro said it expects to sign more agreements with renewable power producers in the weeks ahead. The goal is to reach Hydro's target of 5,000 gigawatt hours per year, roughly the amount of electricity Hydro needs to meet the province's order to make B.C. electricity self-sufficient by 2016.
"In addition, companies that were not successful in this call could have opportunities in the future with the introduction of the Clean Energy Act as the province develops a strong, sustainable energy industry -- harnessing new green technologies that will complement our publicly owned, large hydro-generating facilities," Blair Lekstrom, minister of energy, mines and petroleum resources, said in a statement.
Bev Van Ruyven, acting chief executive officer and president of BC Hydro, said in a statement that clean-power call projects will "complement electricity purchase agreements awarded in the last year and a half under the Bioenergy Call for Power, the Standing Offer Program, as well as bilateral agreements with industry that have enabled BC Hydro to acquire close to 4,300 GWh annually of clean, reliable electricity."
The rates Hydro will pay the proponents for their power have not been disclosed, but Hydro will make a filing to the B.C. Utilities Commission in April and make available to the public the price range for all projects accepted in the call. While some proponents have expressed concern about the two years it has taken Hydro to go from soliciting bids to awarding energy-purchase agreements, the B.C. Citizens for Public Power predicts electricity rates will go up more than they would if BC Hydro were acting as developer of new power. However, Paul Kariya, executive director of the Independent Power Producers of B.C., said the program will contribute $8 billion in economic growth to B.C.