NorskeCanada tries to generate proposal support By Grant Warkentin Campbell River Mirror 6 August 2003 NorskeCanada is worried about the hostile position BC Hydro has taken against the paper giant's proposal to generate electricity at its three Island mills. "We were hoping they would be more open-minded about our proposal and work with us but they're clearly totally committed to only their own project," said Stu Clugson, NorskeCanada's vice-president of corporate affairs. NorskeCanada believes its proposal to generate electricity at its Elk Falls, Crofton and Port Alberni mills will be cheaper, cleaner, safer and more effective than the natural gas-fired plant BC Hydro is hoping to build at Duke Point. However, Clugson said, the public utility did its best to fight NorskeCanada's proposal during hearings before the B.C. Utilities Commission, an independent body which approves new projects and sets electricity rates. "They (BC Hydro) did everything through that hearing to prove they were right and other people were wrong, except to us, they didn't prove anything," Clugson said. That doesn't bode well for the future, he added. "Whatever solution is put forward it will require the co-operation of Hydro, but as we've seen through the hearings they don't play nicely," Clugson said, adding that could be a big problem for NorskeCanada. "If you're talking power you have to be talking with them because they have the monopoly and the mandate." NorskeCanada's plan is simple - install gas turbines at its Island mills and generate electricity to power most of its own needs. That would reduce the load on Vancouver Island's electricity grid and help alleviate concerns over a pending power shortage on the Island. Clugson said it could be done without the need for increased natural gas supply through the Georgia Strait natural gas pipeline crossing (GSX) - NorskeCanada could and could be up and running in about 18 months. "It's not a big deal, really, installing some gas turbines in three mills," he said. "It's not revolutionary technology, it's just being applied differently." NorskeCanada's proposal could generate up to 364 megawatts of power - 132 at the Elk Falls mill, 107 at Crofton, 45 at Port Alberni and 80 by managing demand. In comparison BC Hydro's proposed plant at Duke Point would generate 265 megawatts. NorskeCanada's proposal's biggest strength is in its diversity, Clugson said. "Our proposal is much less risk - it's spread over three areas, it has basically the equivalent of five plants rather than one, so if there are any kind of issues you still have supply," he said. It also has the advantage of being cleaner than the Duke Point proposal. "Ours produces about 20 per cent less greenhouse gases than theirs and spreads them over three watersheds," Clugson said. If NorskeCanada's mills were to steadily generate 284 megawatts of power they would produce 660,336 tonnes of greenhouse gases per year. If the Duke Point facility was to steadily generate 265 megawatts of power it would produce 829,788 tonnes of greenhouse gases per year. Clugson said NorskeCanada's proposal will be expensive - $450 million in total - but said the cost will be worth it. "It's a cost issue for us, but it's also a social and moral question for us," Clugson said. "We're an organization strongly committed to conservation, so we want to have the total project that makes the most sense ecologically and environmentally, and we don't think the BC Hydro project cuts it." BC Hydro's problem, Clugson said, is the public utility isn't interested in multiple, small-scale projects. "They're caught in this big culture of engineering mentality, which is 'build it big and they will come.' That's not how we see it," he said. All NorskeCanada can do now is wait for the final decision of the utilities commission, due sometime at the end of summer. "We'll have to see where the commission takes it - we have a lot of confidence in them, we'll respect what they have to come up with," Clugson said. "We trust them to make the right decisions." http://www.campbellrivermirror.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=6&cat=23&id=94166&more=