The NDP’s energy critic, John Horgan was on CKNW last Friday trying to dig his way out of a hole. Guest host Michael Smyth asked why the NDP(click the link to listen), who have come out strongly opposed to independent power production (IPP), support an IPP in Lytton.
Horgan touts the old party line that the NDP would put a moratorium on IPPs (despite environmentalists like Tzeporah Berman being in favour of them). But maybe not the ones already approved. Huh?
Smyth calls him out, saying “But, look, I thought you said the other day that you like this Lytton project because they need the power there, they’ve been having brownouts there and that it’s a good project in that respect. Now you’re telling me you wouldn’t approve it.”
And Horgan has the audacity to claim he’s being consistent.
Horgan: I'm not changing my position, Mike, but this is a much larger debate than a small micro-hydro project that will service a community that's underserviced today…the fact that the First Nations in Lytton have a power purchase agreement from B.C. Hydro, a contract to provide electricity to the community, means that that debate is over. The debate that we should be having….
Smyth: Yeah, but if you guys were in power, you wouldn't approve it.
Horgan: I'm not in power, Mike. You might have noticed that.
Thank heavens for that!
Perhaps our favourite line, though, goes to Smyth: “I think you’re making up your policy on the fly here.”
Carole James and the NDP. Wrong party, Wrong leader, Wrong time.
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Thank you from the Coalition
14 years ago
Kinda like Gordon and the Burnaby jail,eh?
ReplyDeleteIndependent Power Producer (IPP) Run-of-the-River Technology FACTs:
ReplyDeleteIndependent Power Producers pay 3 times more social benefits to government than BC Hydro does. BC Hydro pays only $8 per MWh as profit and taxes to the government (2008) while most of that power is produced by dams that have permanently altered the Columbia River and Peace River basins with cumulative environmental impacts. To meet our current energy shortage, BC Hydro wants to build yet another dam (Site C) at 3 times the cost per MW, compared to low-cost low-impact private run-of-the-river technology.
Private power IPPs pay $25 per MWh in taxes, water license rental fees, and community benefits to the government. Half of that is paid to the local government as property tax, while BC Hydro pays no local property taxes for 25 billion dollars of assets that it owns.
A small 10 MW run of river plant pays about $1,400,000 a year to various levels of government, most of it to the local government. BC Hydro pays only $440,000 for the same amount of power to the Province, and none of it to the local government.
No IPP run-of-the-river project is on a salmon bearing reach of a stream, and the environmental impact is minor if any. Run-of-the-river technology can co-exist and share the habitat with fish and other wildlife. IPPs do not build dams – but low weirs or taps on a steep stream that has little or no resident fish. The impact is far less than dams built by BC Hydro, logging, mining, oil and gas, coal, real estate development, transportation, pulp and paper, pipelines, utility telephone and cable poles, etc. And unlike mining, oil and gas, coal, transportation and real estate – run of river technology is sustainable, renewable, clean and significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
http://www.ippbc.com/EN/media_room/frequently_asked_questions/
http://www.ippbc.com/EN/media_room/fact_sheets_and_issue_sheets/
BC Hydro produces power at less than $6 a MWh from our gigantic heritage dams paid by BC citizens (in the 1960s), but sells it at about $80 to BC citizens who own these dams. The average salary at BC Hydro is $100,000 per employee per year. This is 2.5 times the average private salary in the province of $40,000. The average salary at BCTC, a unit of BC Hydro is $130,000 per employee. BC Hydro is a very high cost producer, $110 a MWh, from its own Aberfeldie run-of-the-river project that it has just completed.
On the other hand, IPPs generate power at about $50 to $85 a MWh. Ashlu Creek IPP is selling its power to BC Hydro for $55 for the next 40 years (term of the BC Hydro contract). IPPs pay $25 a MWh in taxes, water license rental fees, and first nation royalty to governments - mostly the local government. BC Hydro pays only $8 a MWh in profit and taxes to the government.
BC Hydro charges the ratepayers and taxpayers $1.4 million per GWh in costs to produce non-green power (Site C). This results in very high electricity prices of about $160 a MWh. BC Hydro is unable to produce power if the project is less than 50 MW.
On the other hand, private power IPPs can produce green and clean power at $0.6 million per GWh, none of that charged to ratepayers - and less than half the cost that BC Hydro charges ratepayers. Private power producers can produce power from projects as small as 5 MW by using local talent and labour.
The cost saving is passed on to the consumer when large number of IPPs compete for the few power purchase contracts offered by BC Hydro. BC Hydro offers on the average only 3 buildable power purchase agreements a year and no more than 2 or 3 IPP projects can be built in a year. Without a power purchase agreement from BC Hydro, no IPP run-of-river project can get built. There are 8,000 major streams and 280,000 minor streams and creeks in BC and only 40 IPP plants in all of BC. The water license held by an IPP terminates in about 25 years.
While a run-of-river plant is producing energy, BC Hydro fills up its gigantic dams, so that the energy production can be shifted to the winter. Run of river complements BC Hydro's mega-dams very nicely. Energy is stored behind BC Hydro dams for low-water periods, and many IPPs also have lakes for winter storage.
It is not possible to export power to the US without the authorization of BC Hydro. And BC Hydro and BCTC demand a cut of at least 25% of the sales to allow exports. The price of power in Washington State is generally same as in BC, and the transmission lines to California are all congested.