B.C. Hydro stations idle despite ample water;
independents thrive
By Scott Simpson, Postmedia News May 11, 2012
Read more:
http://www.timescolonist.com/business/Hydro+stations+idle+despite+ample+water/6605119/story.html#ixzz1uc7okCnL
After a bumper year for precipitation in the Pacific Northwest, B.C.
Hydro stations around British Columbia are sitting idle while
independent power producers run flat out.
There's so much water available for hydroelectric power that a
Washington Oregon utility - which runs full time to protect salmon and
trout - is paying other utilities to take electricity off its hands.
That means bargain-priced import electricity is available to B.C. Hydro
from the Bonneville Power Authority - but it's a bittersweet opportunity.
B.C. Hydro can't tap into the cheap power because of contractual
obligations to purchase power from about 75 independent power producers.
Hydro is forced to buy from the independent operators, including big
industrial ones such as Rio Tinto Alcan and Teck Resources, even as its
own generation stations wait on standby. For example, at Peace Canyon
generating station downstream of W.A.C.
Bennett Dam on the Peace River, the primary source of hydroelectricity
for all of B.C., the turbines are sitting idle for the first time in a
decade.
Prices paid to independent power producers vary by season, from an
average winter high of $100 to a springtime low of about $60. By
contrast, the Bonneville price in recent weeks has averaged less than $20.
Overall, according to Hydro's 2011-12 annual report, independent power
producers earned $676 million from Hydro in the 12-month period ending
March 31 - at a price per megawatt of power that was more than twice the
cost of imported electricity during the same period of time
The water is pouring in just as warmer spring temperatures push down
electricity demand. Data this week from the U.S. Energy Information
Agency shows Oregon with 172 per cent of its long term average
precipitation supply, and B.C. with 131 per cent.
Meanwhile, a continuing U.S. economic recession is curtailing industrial
power requirements south of the border. That means there's no market for
B.C. electricity exports to the U.S. Nor do B.C. residents need Hydro to
crank up domestic production.
© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist
Read more:
http://www.timescolonist.com/business/Hydro+stations+idle+despite+ample+water/6605119/story.html#ixzz1uc7Coqgj
Above, a clear example of how costly and self-defeating these agreements
have been and will become. This occurred during (Liberal) Campbell's reign.
Natalia
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