Gas plant coming to Ladysmith?
ANDREW TOPF
The Ladysmith Chronicle
24 August 2004
Ladysmith could be part of a multi-million dollar strategy by BC Hydro to add new sources of electricity to Vancouver Island.
Among the six bidders who have submitted tenders to Hydro to provide a combined total of at least 150 megawatts of new power to the Island, is a 45-48 megawatt gas-generation plant slated for the Peerless Road Industrial Park just south of town.
The bid for Ladysmith was submitted by Epcor Power Development, a company headquartered in Edmonton that owns and operates power plants, electrical transmission and distribution networks, builds and operates water and wastewater treatment facilities and infrastructure, and provides power and water solutions to customers in Alberta, B.C. and the Pacific Northwest, according to the company's Web site.
Epcor spokesman Tim Boston said the project involves construction of a "peaker plant" to be utilized during peak electricity periods.
"It's fairly innocuous," Boston said in an interview last Thursday.
"It'd be a small building, a turbine, and a small stack." Responding to a question about possible noise and emissions, Boston downplayed the plant's impact on the environment, saying it would not be run very often, and is being designed as a backup for the Island's power grid.
He also noted such concerns will be addressed when the project undergoes a required environmental impact assessment and comes before the B.C. Utilities Commission.
Boston refused to give financial details of the project, citing concerns about such information leaking to the company's competitors.
Ladysmith Mayor Rob Hutchins was reluctant to comment on Epcor's proposal until he learns more about its size and scope, but he said the Town will certainly be asking questions about its possible environmental impacts.
"The key here is to ensure if something like this is coming to the area, that we have the least impact on the environment as possible," said Hutchins.
Peter Ronald of the Georgia Strait Alliance, a non-profit organization seeking to prevent environmental degradation of the Georgia Basin, was similarly cautious on voicing an opinion on the project until learning further details. However, Ronald said his group's position on BC Hydro's invitation for more fossil-fuel-driven energy is clear.
"It is outrageous with the emerging problems of climate change, that we are not looking with a lot more enthusiasm at saving energy rather than finding new ways to burn fossil energy," he said.
Epcor's proposal for Ladysmith is part of a tender process that began last fall after BC Hydro's Vancouver Island Generation Project - a 265-megawatt plant to be built at Duke Point at a cost of $370 million - was rejected as too large and costly by the B.C. Utilities Commission.
Now it appears the dead-and-buried Duke Point project has been revived, with Epcor and Calpine Canada 50-50 partners in a bid for a 255-megawatt Duke Point plant, to be up and running by November, 2007.
The four other bids, made public by BC Hydro last Monday, include a Calpine gas co-generation project at its existing plant in Campbell River, Duke Point Power's natural gas bid for Nanaimo, Enco Power's bid for Nanaimo, and Green Island Energy's biomass bid for Gold River.
Conspicuous for its absence on the list was Norske-Canada, which had already been pre-qualified for seven power generation proposals it submitted last year. Company spokesperson Lyn Brown said Norske dropped out of the competition in May after learning of some of the other players involved, and has decided to focus on demand management solutions - such as shifting operations from peak to non-peak hours - rather than stepping up to the plate as an energy producer.
Norske is Vancouver Island's biggest electricity consumer, pulling about one quarter of the total load.
One or more 25-year electricity purchase agreements is expected to awarded by BC Hydro by the end of October.
Comment
The Peerless Road site was one of a handful selected by BC Hydro after their Port Alberni Generation Project (PAGP) was rejected in Port Alberni. The economics of a "peaker plant" are quite different than those for a base generation plant that runs all the time. The dollar per megawatt cost of electricity is considerably higher for a number of reasons to do with economies of scale and spot market prices. Consider this: BC Hydro opens the dams at periods of peak California demand precisely to capture the high revenues paid at those moments. Would they then turn around and pay Epcor similarly high rates for power generated at Peerless Road?