BC Hydro announces first private 'clean power' providers
March 16, 2010 by Lynn Knell
Filed under BC news, Business, Environment, Government
BC Hydro has announced it has selected the first group of 19 projects to be awarded electricity purchase agreements under the Clean Power Call. Combined, the projects will generate more than 2,400 gigawatt hours of clean, reliable electricity annually –- enough to supply close to 218,000 homes in B.C. As well, construction will create 3,000 person years of employment and $3 billion in capital investment in BC.
“These first project selections represent a significant step forward in meeting our provincial goal of becoming energy self-sufficient and building a clean energy powerhouse here in B.C.,” said Blair Lekstrom, Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources. “This is the first step towards meeting our Throne Speech commitment to fair, predictable, clean power calls that will feature simplified procurement protocols and new measures to encourage investment in this province.”
Bev Van Ruyven, acting President and CEO of BC Hydro said, “These projects were selected because they are among the most advanced clean energy proposals put forward,” “We look forward to announcing more of these projects in the weeks ahead as we advance towards our target of acquiring up to 5,000 gigawatt hours a year of clean, reliable electricity generated here in British Columbia.”
A further 28 projects remain in the Clean Power Call and BC Hydro expects to select additional projects for the award of electricity purchase agreements in late March depending on the progress of discussions with proponents. In addition, BC Hydro will assess the adequacy of the proponents’ consultation with First Nations.
The nineteen projects selected at this point for the award of electricity purchase agreements under the Clean Power Call are as follows:
Fourteen Run-of-River projects:
- C-Free Power Corp. (41 GWh/yr) Gold Bridge
- Cloudworks Energy Inc. (110 GWh/yr) Harrison Hot Springs
- Cloudworks Energy Inc. (44 GWh/yr) Mission
- Cloudworks Energy Inc. (56 GWh/yr) Harrison Hot Springs
- Creek Power Inc. (143 Gwh/yr) Pemberton
- Creek Power Inc. (48 GWh/yr) Pemberton
- Creek Power Inc. (34 GWh/yr) Pemberton
- Kwagis Power Limited Partnership (183 GWh/yr) Port McNeill
- Plutonic Power Corp/GE Energy Financial Services Co. (214Gwh/yr) near Powell R.
- Selkirk Power Co. Ltd. (86 GWh/yr) near Golden
- NI Hydro Holding Corp.(Stlixwim Partnership) 3 projects (198GWh/yr) Sechelt
- Swift Power Corp. (46 GWh/yr) Terrace
Five Wind Projects:
- CP Renewable Energy (BC) Ltd. Partnership (formerly EPCOR) (434 GWh/yr) Tumbler Ridge
- Finavera Renewables Inc.(142 GWh/year) Tumbler Ridge
- Finavera Renewables Inc.(327 GWh/year) Tumbler Ridge
- Finavera Renewables Inc.(140 GWh/year) Tumbler Ridge
- Finavera Renewables Inc.(204 GWh/year) Chetwynd
Questions and Answers about the lead-up to today’s announcement can be found on the BC Hydro website at:
http://www.bchydro.com/planning_regulatory/acquiring_power/clean_power_call/q_as.html
BC Hydro approves 4 power projects -Wind turbines to be installed on Vancouver Island, while Hecate Strait offshore project is shelved
Four power projects, including one that will install 66 wind turbines on the northeast coast of Vancouver Island, have been approved under a new purchase agreement by BC Hydro.
However, an offshore wind project proposed for Hecate Strait has fallen out of contention, while a controversial run-of-river project on the Klinaklini River is still hoping for future approval…
..BC Hydro is continuing discussions with eight proponents of clean power call proposals and expects to sign more agreements.
Its announcement drew criticism from environmentalists, who say power purchase agreements should not precede environmental approvals.
“We think there should be a moratorium on clean energy calls until a public consultation process has been worked out,” said Gwen Barlee, policy director for the Wilderness Committee.
“They are currently granting energy purchase agreements before these projects have been through environmental assessment and that’s crazy – it’s like saying the environmental assessment process in B.C. is a rubber stamp,” she said…..
Link here; http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/bc-hydro-approves-4-power-projects/article1519465/
~Endangered.
Endangered, you evidently don’t understand how business works in this world
Why would any one go through the entire EAO process which can be long and costly, do the business plans necessary to obtain funding for any project whether green energy or blue energy without having something as basic as an agreed sale and purchase agreement in place ??
To do such would be the height of stupidity and excessive cost and huge uncertainty prior to any other business decision being made.
This is just simple and basic practice in the running of the world in both business and government.
Please keep things in perspective. There is absolutely no need for a capitalist, a developer, and entrepeneur to risk capital or investors’ monies without an assured customer. In this case the customer is BC Hydro and yourself and myself.
The proponents have identified some sites that will work from an efficiency perspective, and probably a cost benefit perspective as well, Now they have to go through the EAO side of things. But without the basic knowledge of costs and benefits ( sale proceeds ) and having a market for their energy, nothing would be accomplished in this country let alone in the energy field be it; run of the river, wind farms, tidal power generating plants, bio fuel energy development, or the building of homes and office buildings, roads and dams.
The Wilderness Committee whoever they might be, have missed the basic concept as well, it would appear.
If you would like to talk with me about basic economics and business practices, by all means, call me on my cell at 250 342 1524 and I would be more than pleased to talk with you about these basic needs of society
David R Pacey
President
BC Liberals
Columbia River Revelstoke
Edmonton Profits Big from BC Private Power
For trio of independent power plants, net-profit margin is a whopping 26.8 per cent. By Will McMartin, Today, TheTyee.ca
What is an appropriate profit margin for independent power producers (IPPs) who sell clean- or green-energy to BC Hydro and Power Authority?
The Tyee has learned that for one utility in Edmonton, a trio of B.C. IPPs generates annual profits of $15.7 million with net profit margins of 26.8 per cent.
By comparison, the other power producers owned across North America by the Edmonton company have net-profit margins of just 7.8 percent.
More about that company later, but back to the question that affects your pocketbook and quality of life if you live in B.C.: Are such big profit margins fair to tax payers who ultimately subsidize them?
The question has been raised recently in two of Canada’s largest newspapers.
Writing in The Globe and Mail, columnist Margaret Wente blasted “the wacky world of green power, where misguided governments have sparked a massive corporate feeding frenzy (at taxpayers’ expense) to achieve little or nothing of any social benefit.”
Two provincial premiers, Gordon Campbell of British Columbia and Ontario’s Dalton McGuinty, came in for especial Wente criticism. “The heart of their strategy,” she scoffed, “is to pay massive subsidies to wind, solar and other renewable energy producers — many of them large multinational corporations — for the next 20 years.”……
….Excess millions flowing out of the province?
It is manifestly obvious that the trio of B.C. power generators were three-and-a-half times more profitable than all the rest of CPILP’s plants — in Alberta, Ontario, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Colorado, California and Washington State — combined.
The math should concern British Columbia’s taxpayers and BC Hydro ratepayers. In 2009, CPILP’s three B.C. electricity generating facilities sold electricity — which cost the plants $19.7 million to produce — to BC Hydro for $58.6 million.
That left an “operating margin” (gross profit) of $38.9 million. From that figure must be deducted $23.2 million in central-office expenses, outlays largely incurred in CPILP’s home-town of Edmonton (for managerial salaries and so on).
Net income — the net profit that was sent from British Columbia to Edmonton — was $15.7 million.
Link here; http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2010/04/19/EdmontonProfits/
~Another good read. Endangered.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 2010
The first Site C purpose
On April 10, Northern Insights reported that Liberals will force BC Hydro to provide firm-power to private producers for export. Privates want a choice of selling to BC Hydro or contracting with their own customers. However, they cannot guarantee availability of their own power on a continuous basis and the market value of interruptible power is unsatisfactory. The ability to make up shortages by accessing electricity from BC Hydro solves a major problem for private companies.
This information was contained here: Not merely consistent with guilt but inconsistent with innocence http://northerninsights.blogspot.com/2010/04/not-merely-consistent-with-guilt-but.html
Now, despite claims that Site C’s 900-megawatt capacity is needed for domestic use, government intends to proceed so that it can facilitate power exports.
The first element of this policy is confirmed by the Globe and Mail’s Justine Hunter in Site C dam laying groundwork for surge in energy exports.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/site-c-dam-laying-groundwork-for-surge-in-energy-exports/article1541339/?cmpid=rss1
“The publicly owned utility, BC Hydro, is expanding clean power purchases from independent power producers, but many of those projects, such as wind power or run-of-the-river, do not provide the reliable capacity that exporters want. By having a greater supply of so-called firm energy from large hydro-electric dams, the province will be in a stronger position to sell its power to other western provinces and the United States.”
~Endangered.
IPPs will return their extra profits to ratepayers in return for ratepayers footing the bill for site C. This is just like big business returning their extra profits to taxpayers due to the HST!( If you believe this vote Liberal again.)
TUESDAY, AUGUST 17, 2010
When thieves hold keys to the public vault
Must reading from The Common Sense Canadian by economist Erik Andersen:
Sinister Financial Vectors at BC Hydro(; Link here; http://thecanadian.org/k2/item/218-erik-andersen-sinister-finances-bc-hydro )
From 2007 to 2010, there has been a $628 million reversal of net operating income. The total volume of domestic (inside BC) sales went from 52,440 GWhs in 2006 to 50,233 units by 2010. Debt-to-equity ratio has typically hovered around 70/30 but now is 89/11.
In fiscal 2007 about $236,000 of capital was used to produce one GWh. By 2010 it took 38% more capital to get the same quantity of energy for domestic customers. A December 2009 report from Price WaterhouseCoopers projects that IPP projects will deliver 35,470 GWhs by 2020. The estimated total capital deployed would be $26.144 billion. That translates into $737,074 of new capital to produce one GWh.
With growth in domestic demand slowing and reversing, BC Hydro embarked on aggressive contracting for energy from IPPs.
Sales to outside of BC customers have collapsed, leaving only the captive domestic customers to carry the growing financial burden.
Link here; http://northerninsights.blogspot.com/search/label/BC%20Hydro
~Endangered.
Also a good read. Who Killed Monatana power ; http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/06/60minutes/main539719.shtml
“(CBS) For nearly 90 years, the Montana Power Company exemplified the very best of American capitalism. It provided cheap, reliable electricity for the people of Montana, excellent benefits for thousands of employees and generous, reliable dividends for its stockholders.
Everyone was happy, except for the corporate officers and their Wall Street investment banking firm who decided there was more money to be made in the more glamourous and profitable world of telecommunications.
The result exemplified the worst of American capitalism.
When 60 Minutes first reported this story last February, the cheap electricity, the good jobs and the life savings of a lot of people were gone, along with the name Montana Power.
Its demise may not be the biggest scandal of our time, but to its stockholders, it shows how greed and outright stupidity destroyed one of the oldest and proudest companies in America. Correspondent Steve Kroft reports…….
~Consider this a cautionary tale of the dangers of privatized power generation. ~Endangered.