U.S.-Canada power cable proposed for Vancouver Island

King Lee
Business Examiner (South edition)
Aug 15 2005

To say that Sea Breeze Power Corp. is just full of wind is simply not correct.

While it is true that the B.C.-registered, Vancouver-headquartered power provider is heavily into Vancouver Island wind farms, it is also developing a Pacific regional transmission system with plans for a $300-million, 990-megawatt, 19-kilometre undersea hydroelectric cable across the Strait of Juan de Fuca between Victoria and Port Angeles, Wash.

Sea Breeze's proposal for a 150-turbine, 80-metre-high wind farm at Knob Hill, 35-kilometres west of Port Hardy and eight kilometres north of Holberg that is expected to produce 450 megawatts of energy has provincial environmental assessment approval. It is the first of 10 Sea Breeze projects in the province.

"I've been a long-time observer of wind energy development," said Paul Manson, Sea Breeze president, in a telephone interview from Vancouver.

He called the fact that there was not a single wind-energy source in B.C. "close to scandalous."

But Manson said his company was also interested in hydro-electricity and began looking into that aspect of energy supply to Vancouver Island about two years ago, when BC Hydro's Duke Point power project was still being planned and hotly debated.

At that time, the Bonneville Power Administration, a federal agency under the U.S. Dept. of Energy that operates 75 per cent of the Pacific Northwest's high-voltage grid with more than 24,000 kilometres of transmission lines and 285 sub-stations covering eight states, targeted Port Angeles as a "transmission constrained" area in need of a major upgrade.

On June 17 this year, BC Hydro pulled the plug on the Duke Point project, citing continuing legal appeals that increased the risk of the power plant not being built on time.

"We knew there were difficulties in selling power to BC Hydro," Manson said. "We didn't appreciate how deep those problems were."

So Sea Breeze looked for partnership alternatives and found Boundless Energy, LCC, a transmission engineering firm, and ABB Inc., an international contractor and manufacturer of high-voltage, direct current (HVDC) equipment and cables.

Sea Breeze also signed a US$8 million development loan agreement with Energy Investors Fund.

"We're long overdue for major investments in this sector," said Manson, who predicted this was only the "tip of the iceberg" in new investments in the hydro-electricity industry.

Manson also raved about HVDC, the type of cable to be used in the Juan de Fuca transmission corridor, calling it "hands down, the best technology today."

He said the direct current (DC) method was far superior to alternating current (AC) because there were no fluctuating electro-magnetic fields, it eliminates oil-cooled lines that sometimes led to leakage, there was less line energy loss and it has minimal impact on the marine environment.

Manson said the Juan de Fuca line will connect two relatively weak transmission systems and also relieve the electrical congestion now facing the Blaine, Wash., inter-tie while serving the power needs of Vancouver Islanders.

He said the island just about hit peak capacity on Jan. 4, 2004, when consumption came within "dozens of megawatts" of "brown-outs" faced by Californians.

B.C. is a net importer of energy, buying energy from the U.S. and Alberta in a five-hour period between midnight and 5 a.m., but selling power (at a higher price) in the other hours of the day.

Sea Breeze has filed the application for the Juan de Fuca cable, found financing and completed feasibility and impact studies.

Manson said a B.C. Transmission Corp. feasibility study is now underway but he is confident it will concur with his company's and Bonneville Power Administration's findings.

"We've already done our homework," Manson said. "I'm highly confident there (are) no show-stoppers here."

The Juan de Fuca line will have a 400-megawatt capacity northward and 550-megawatt capacity southbound, compared with the 265-megawatt capacity proposed for the failed Duke Point project.

Sea Breeze signed a protocol with the Esquimalt First Nations last month and is working with Esquimalt and View Royal municipalities to clear the path. The line is expected to go through Macaulay Point in Esquimalt to the Pike substation near Thetis Lake in View Royal.

Manson said the cost for the first line is about US$200 million and should be about the same for the second line.

He said construction should begin in the fall of 2006 and directional drilling will be done for the 30-centimetre-wide tunnel near the foreshore so that the lines will not disturb tidal zones or burial remains.

Sea Breeze hopes the lines will become operational by the fall of 2007.

The majority of Sea Breeze shareholders are California residents. It started in 1991 as International Powerhouse Energy Corp. In 1999, it went public in a reverse takeover. In 2003, it acquired Sea Breeze Energy Inc. and changed its name to Sea Breeze Power Corp.

Sea Breeze's major competitors are Canadian Utilities Ltd., Hydro-Quebec and TransCanada Corporation (TRP).