Private sector needed to help meet power self-sufficiency

Dan Potts
Vancouver Sun
Special to the Sun
December 18, 2006

British Columbia consumes more electricity than it produces. To cover this deficit and assure reasonable self-sufficiency, BC Hydro's requirements for new supply will approach 20,000 GWh of electric energy over the next 20 years, about 40 per cent of the utility's current supply.

To close this deficit, meet growing demand and keep rates reasonable, B.C. must be open to the development of a number of new, cost-effective generation resources. Renewable resources such as wind and run-of-the-river hydro can do part of the job, but new large and reliable resources will also be required including thermal and hydro generation facilities and the associated transmission lines.

The ability of BC Hydro to use the private sector to supply its growing needs is now being tested. After awarding 38 contracts for a total of 7,000 GWh, several of these proposals, particularly the two projects using wood waste and coal as fuel, are encountering opposition. Opponents suggest that such facilities will create serious local air quality problems.

I have had extensive experience with these types of facilities over my 40-year career in the pulp and paper industry. During one four-year period I worked at a plant that operated a coal-wood waste co-generation plant producing 68 megawatts of electric power. It was a new plant in the late 1980s and used an electrostatic precipitator for emission control.

Through four years of almost daily scrutiny, I always observed a clear plume from the stack on this boiler and never encountered adverse air quality as a result of the emissions. There was never a complaint from the local community related to this facility. Other than those directly involved, nobody even knew it was there.

The new waste-wood coal burning facilities proposed for B.C. will employ technology much further advanced than that at the plant where I worked.

Besides collecting particulate, there will be additional controls to limit SO2 and mercury. Instead of an electrostatic precipitator, a bag-house will act as a large filter through which all the flue gas flows. It will deliver a higher level of performance and reliability than an electrostatic precipitator.

It has also been suggested by some that conservation can reduce requirements so that new generation facilities are not required. The need for new power outlined above is after implementation of an aggressive conservation program projected to supply about one-third of the growing demand over the next 20 years.

Whether this can be accomplished is open to serious question. But even if we achieve this objective, new major sources of electric power will be required.

Others have voiced opposition to coal burning because of increased greenhouse-gas emissions. While an important issue worldwide, the issue needs to be dealt with on a comprehensive national/international basis and not unilaterally applied to a single technology after proponents have developed plans in good faith that comply with the terms of BC Hydro's call for tender and the newly established provincial emission standards.

To reject these facilities now, after proponents have expended extensive resources to develop their plans, sends a costly message to those in the private sector who may want to help supply the growing need for electric power in B.C.

We need to encourage the private sector participation in the generation of electric power if we are to meet the growing demand in B.C.

Some have suggested we do not need to burn coal since Site C on the Peace River can be developed as an option to meet our growing requirements. While Site C is an option, its total production would be 4,000 GWh or only 25 per cent of B.C.'s requirements over the next 20 years.

Obviously the local communities have a role to play in the development of new industrial activity.

Being well-informed, including a clear understanding of the need for additional power in B.C. and of the true impacts and benefits, will assist everyone in making the important energy decisions we now face.

Dan Potts is executive director of the Joint Industry Electricity Steering Committee, which represents the major industrial users of purchased electric power in B.C.