"It's what we've wanted all along, a chance for the public to have a say," said Larry Whaley, a member of the Nanaimo Citizens Organizing Committee, who suggested the review could be the end of the 265-megawatt power plant. "I would say the project is dead," said Whaley, noting the delay caused by the review will push the $380-million project beyond B.C. Hydro's timeline.
The review requirement came as part of the province's new energy policy, which aims to increase private investment and maintain low-cost electricity.
However, Hydro spokeswoman Elisha Odowichuk does not anticipate the review will alter the schedule of having the power plant operational by late 2004. "We are committed to going ahead with that project," she said. "I don't think there's any question of the need on the Island for it."
Whaley and members of other groups are hoping the review will show what they've believed all along -- that the plant is simply not needed on the Island.
"The review is definitely a positive step," said Thomas Hackney, president of the GSX Concerned Citizens Coalition, which opposes the construction of the Georgia Strait Crossing (GSX) natural gas pipeline, which is linked to construction the natural gas-fired plant. "The environmental assessment process (of the plant) is limited and does not address the fundamental cost-benefit analysis. It assumes the project will be built and therefore how do we mitigate the impact?" he said. "Our position is that the GSX and the power plant are not needed."
Groups such as these, along with the Society Promoting Environmental Conservation, have been fighting against the plant from the moment B.C. Hydro set its sights on Duke Point. They argued the public was not consulted and that Hydro had not exhausted all other avenues to harness more power for the Island.
"We now know the (plant) won't be allowed to circumvent a review by the B.C. Utilities Commission as Duke Point proponent B.C. Hydro wanted," said SPEC director Norm Abbey. "The B.C. Utilities Commission will review all aspects of the plant," Energy and Mines Minister Richard Neufeld told the Times Colonist editorial board Monday. "What kind of plant it should be, is it where it should go ... have all the alternatives been researched ... are they doing the right thing on behalf of all British Columbians?"
B.C. Hydro will appear before the commission Jan. 15.
The utility has maintained the Island, which produces only 20 per cent of the electricity it uses, could suffer power shortages as early as the winter of 2004 without the project. It maintains the cables which bring electricity to the Island from the Lower Mainland are old and are too costly to replace.
Odowichuk says the plan is to have the new generation facility running by November 2004, and the BCUC review should have little impact on the schedule as the process is already being hung up by the National Energy Board.
The NEB is delaying approval of the GSX pipeline -- without which there is no power plant -- until a series of issues have been resolved.
"We anticipate we will have one year slippage (from the schedule) as a result of the regulatory process," said Hydro president Larry Bell, who remained confident it would be built.
How it will be built remains to be seen. Another prong of the government's new energy policy makes it clear that all new power generation facilities will be built by the private sector.
"Hydro is limited to generation capacity only within their own operations that they have now," said Neufeld. "They are not going to be allowed to go out and compete with the private sector."
Though B.C. Hydro has already lost one private-sector partner for the Island project -- California-based Calpine pulled out in May citing a range of issues on which Calpine and B.C. Hydro could not agree -- Neufeld is confident another will come along. "When it all settles down, I think there will be some commercial operators that will actually pay a good price for that plant if it's built or even for the right to go and build it," he said.
Bell made it clear earlier in the day that B.C. Hydro will not delay in finding a buyer. "We have announced that we will look for the earliest opportunity to put that particular plant into private hands," he said. "Large thermal plants are not necessarily our core competency."