The Dismanteling Of The Rest Of BC Hydro Begins

The Sun Online is reporting that the Independent Power Producers, a powerful lobby group is going after the Burrard Thermal Plant near Port Moody. For those who are not familiar with this plant it is run on Natural Gas and supplies the whole lower mainland with power in the overload times.

Excerpt from The Sun with comments in italics by me.

Without Burrard, the closest source of electricity big enough to support B.C.’s population hub is more than 500 kilometres distant, at Revelstoke — and the high-voltage transmission system between the two communities is itself in need of a major upgrade.

A project to twin that line — and minimize the risk that an ice storm or a landslide would trigger a blackout in the Lower Mainland — is not expected to be complete for a decade.

Nonetheless, critics such as the Independent Power Producers Association of British Columbia are questioning why Hydro should be spending such a large amount of money ($119 million annually by 2017) for a facility that will run only a few weeks a year and is essentially a very expensive hedge against spikes in Lower Mainland electricity demand.

I find it very troubling to hear a spin from a vested interest in power supply to get rid of a power source to further their own interests.( GaryE)

In a recent submission to the utilities commission, IPPBC described Burrard Thermal as “antiquated and very inefficient” — converting into electricity only 31 per cent of the energy it consumes.

What the utilities commission needs to ask is just how much profit the IPP expects to squeeze out of the folks in the Lower Mainland when they put in their own plant.(Gary E)

The association says it can “through competitive bid processes” provide from renewable energy projects the electricity that Hydro seeks.

What "competitive bid process" will that be? Will it be the "granting" of a contract to replace Burrard Thermal by the present liberal government? Done throgh the now usual secret bidding? Will the power be given away like BC Rail. Will the bid winner be pre determined like the Rail winner? What cosolation prize will their be? Site C?(Gary E)

And just as an afterthought where will they put their IPP "run of the river" power plant? The upper Pitt River? They've already tried that route. OOps, pardon me, Campbell thinks he has a new mandate to give the rest of our once beautiful province away.