| BC
Hydro has a plan for Vancouver Island. The island is to become "self-sufficient"
in electricity, as the HVDC cables that service the island are replaced
over the next decade with natural gas fired electricity generating
plants. (Of course that creates a dependency for natural gas. What
is the value to Vancouver Island, to British Columbia, or to BC Hydro,
of switching the island's dependency from electricity to gas? Where
is the self-sufficiency?) Three cogeneration plants are planned for the island. The first, Island Cogeneration Plant, or ICP, is a 240 MW facility being built in Campbell River and is due to start up in the fall of 2000. The second, Port Alberni Cogeneration, or PAC, is also a 240 MW plant. It has received environmental approval but the original deal to build, own and operate it has fallen through. A new deal is in the works, however, possibly with ABB, or with NESCO. NESCO is the same company proposing to build Sumas Energy 2 (SE2). The third plant is the most interesting and frightening. Itr is a 620+ MW beast, similar to SE2. Note that Joan Sawicki, the provincial Environment Minister, recently opposed Sumas Energy 2. Click here to read her letter. The third plant is planned for the Duncan area. BC Hydro denies any decision to locate the plant near Duncan. It won't release any details about the plant, and in fact has sat for weeks on a freedom of information (FOI) request to release some info about the plant. Hydro now will only say any site reference is speculative, as they did in their June/July 2000 Project Update brochure. Is it true that BC Hydro plans to build a large natural gas-fired generation plant in Duncan?Do you believe it? Or do you believe this statement from an internal planning document prepared in 1999: ... B.C.Hydro's Power Supply group plan to build a plant near Duncan ...The document says that will be in 2004, if the Port Alberni plant doesn't proceed. This chart shows the full schedule, as envisioned by BC Hydro:  Read the full text of this planning document. It's got a lot of interesting material in it - a lot more than Hydro is prepared to talk about in public. For example, the existing HVDC infrastructure is aging, and perhaps needs replacement. From this document, though, it appears that the biggest problem Hydro has with those facilities is that they don't have any technical resources left who know how to service the stuff. They've let them all go. Gave Joe early retirement, and as a result they're having to build three cogens and a pipeline. Some planning. HVDC Operating and Maintenance Strategy 1999 to 2007 To download a text-only version click here |