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NorskeCanada would rather abandon its proposal to generate electricity on Vancouver Island than submit it to B.C. Hydro, according to a document submitted Tuesday to the B.C. Utilities Commission.

Norske says Hydro has never seriously explored alternatives to its own plan to address the Island's need for a local source of electricity to replace failing seabed transmission lines from the mainland.

A Norske submission to the commission says Hydro and many of its key personnel are "too deeply committed" to their own project to give alternatives a fair hearing.

Norske is proposing to generate electricity at three Vancouver Island pulp mills as an alternative to B.C. Hydro's $700-million plan to build a natural-gas-fired electricity generation plant near Nanaimo and feed the plant with gas delivered from the United States via a pipeline along the Georgia Strait seabed.

At a recently concluded utilities commission hearing, Hydro proposed to resolve the controversy over the Island's best option with a call for tenders to examine alternatives to its own project.

However, Hydro said the projects would best be used to augment its own proposal, not to replace it.

Norske sees its own plan, coupled with improvements to Terasen's existing gas line to the Island, as a cheaper, more efficient and reliable alternative to Hydro's proposals.

It wants the utilities commission to evaluate the proposals against Hydro's own projects.

Norske is B.C. Hydro's single largest customer.

In its submission to the commission, it claims that Hydro has "never searched for alternatives" to its own proposals and has not demonstrated that they would be the most cost-effective solution to the Island's power needs.

"The problem is that they have a horse in the race," said NorskeCanada vice-president Stu Clugston.

"We'd like to see the BCUC take it over. The proposal to issue a call for tenders came late in the process when it became clear that Hydro was not making its case," Clugston said.

"It would have B.C. Hydro conducting and judging a competition for future electricity supply in which it is participating as a competitor, in pursuit of which it has spent over $100 million," says the document.

"NorskeCanada is of the view that B.C. Hydro and many of its key personnel are too deeply committed [to Hydro's own projects] to be considered fair and neutral in assessing alternative electric supply options."

In response to the Norske submission, Hydro said it lacks sufficient detail to evaluate the relative costs of its project and Norske's, and that a secure electricity supply for the Island must be the overriding consideration.

"We can't say to our customer 'maybe we'll have power' -- we're not in the maybe business. We are mandated to serve our customer, obligated to make sure the power they need is there, whenever they need it, no questions, no maybes," said Hydro media relations manager Elisha Moreno.

"That uncertainty creates unacceptable risk that B.C. Hydro cannot accept on behalf of its ratepayers.

She said the Crown corporation has no opinion on Norske's stated intention to bow out of the call for tenders process that Hydro has proposed."

"It is Norske's choice not to submit a proposal under the CFT, we don't have an opinion on it either way," Moreno said.