BC Hydro project could rise from ashes

Six bidders submit tenders to supply Island electricity

Andrew A. Duffy
Times Colonist
August 17, 2004

B.C. Hydro's Vancouver Island Generation Project may be dead, but it's not beyond rising from the ashes.

Among the six bidders who have submitted tenders to Hydro to provide new sources of electricity for Vancouver Island, is a 255-megawatt gas-fired generation project slated for Duke Point in Nanaimo.

The bid is a 50-50 partnership between Edmonton-based Epcor Power Development and Calpine Canada, that would see the generation plant up, running and in service by November 2007.

The dead-and-buried VIGP by comparison was a 265-megawatt plant to be built by Hydro on the same Duke Point site at a cost of $370 million. It was rejected by the B.C. Utilities Commission as too large and costly a means to make up the Island's energy shortfall -- it's rejection last fall necessitated the call for tender process.

The Epcor-Calpine bid was on a list made public Monday of the six bidders who chose to submit tenders to provide a minimum of 150 megawatts of new electricity to the grid.

"We're pretty happy with the results actually," said Hydro's senior vice-president of distribution Bev Van Ruyven. "With six bidders making submissions, we are optimistic the (call for tenders) will produce an outcome that enables us to continue to meet our service obligations on Vancouver Island in a reliable, cost-effective manner."

Also on the list was a 42-47 megawatt Epcor natural gas-fired project for Ladysmith, that would be used during electricity peak times; A Calpine natural gas co-generation project at its existing co-gen plant in Campbell River; Duke Point Power's natural gas bid for Nanaimo, Enco Power Company's bid for Nanaimo and Green Island Energy's Biomass bid for Gold River.

Not on the list were any of the seven Norske Canada proposals that had been pre-qualified, despite the fact the company had floated the suite of projects for public consumption as early as last year.

Calls to Norske were not returned Monday.

"Norske chose not to submit," said Van Ruyven, who noted Hydro had a policy of not discussing the process with the bidders to ensure fairness in the process.

"I can't answer for them ... I am disappointed, because the more (bidders) in the process the more competitive it is."

Hydro will now review the tenders to ensure they meet the mandatory criteria and to assess their development risk and other issues, said Van Ruyven, noting they will then be reviewed for cost-effectiveness.

The Victoria Times-Colonist