US utility keen on BC power

Tag : variable power supply

BCTC estimates that private-sector investment of $13 billion fordevelopment of wind, small hydro and bioenergy resource projectscould boost electricity production in the province about 40 percent above BC Hydro's present annual output by 2015.
The installed, or theoretical, capacity of all that development ismore than twice the output of the largest hydroelectricity facilityin the province, the Bennett Dam/Shrum Generating Station on thePeace River in northeastern B.C. -- although both wind and smallhydro are intermittent energy sources that depend on the variablenature of stream flow and wind.
The power would travel from B.C. to central California on aproposed $4-billion transmission line running south from Selkirksubstation in southeastern B.C., through Washington and Oregon tocentral California.
B.C. already sells power into the U.S. on this route, and sinceSelkirk substation is only a few kilometres from the U.S. border,its contribution to the new transmission line is nominal.
B.C.'s green energy resources, however, are central to the project.
Pacific Gas and Electric, which serves 15 million customers innorth and central California, is leading the effort and is poisedto release a $14-million study of B.C.'s potential to feed thestate's appetite for green power.
According to Fong Wan, PG&E's vice-president of energyprocurement, the shareholder-owned utility has already locked upenough new power development to meet a state-mandated goal of20-per-cent renewable energy in its portfolio by 2010.
However, Wan noted that legislation developed by the state assemblyaimed at curtailing greenhouse gas emissions will push thatstandard higher. And that's why the utility is looking at B.C.
It will present its findings to the California Public UtilitiesCommission (CPUC), which regulates utilities in the state in muchthe same manner that the B.C. Utilities Commission regulates BCHydro and BCTC.
"We've always been told that B.C. has a vast amount of potentialrenewable energy," Wan said in a telephone interview earlier thisweek. "So our desire to explore this possibility is to see what'sreally there, and how it compares to what else is available in themarketplace."
Early studies have suggested that B.C. power would be affordablefor PG&E customers under a variety of economic scenarios.
Wan did not want to discuss the conclusions of the study until itis released.
"We are going to be filing our report with the CPUC in a matter ofa week or less. I'm not comfortable with disclosing [its findings]prior to that.
"But I can let you know that I expect in general our comments to bevery positive."
Electricity trade has been a boon to British Columbia sincethen-premier W.A.C. Bennett beat Prime Minister Lester Pearson andU.S. President Lyndon Johnson at the negotiating table for theColumbia River treaty in 1964, and opened the floodgates on astream of power sales revenue that continues to this day.
The flow of cash was enhanced 20 years ago with the creation ofPowerex as a power-trading subsidiary of BC Hydro to market surpluspower from hydroelectric facilities across the province.
The trading concept is simple in both theory and execution: Openthe dams and export B.C. power when electricity prices south of theborder are high, and close the dams and import power when U.S.prices are low.
This arrangement usually works to B.C.'s benefit, but thatadvantage is eroding due to a lack of major new generationdevelopment since the Revelstoke Dam was completed more than twodecades ago.
This has prompted the provincial government to order BC Hydro tobring the province back to a net export position through thedevelopment of new renewable electricity resources by independentpower producers.
Carbon dioxide emission-free power is attractive to traders southof the border as governments move to curtail greenhouse gasemissions that are causing climate change.
Trade can't grow without an improved transmission system. Thewestern grid was never set up to serve a far-flung group ofpower-trading utilities, and it is frequently running at the limitof its reliability.
Pacific Gas and Electric, BC Transmission Corp. and other utilitiesalong the grid are working on a project to fix it -- theCanada/Pacific Northwest to Northern California TransmissionProject, a $4-billion initiative that will complete the first phaseof planning in August.
If it goes ahead, it will be the first major expansion of thesystem in a generation.
"I think the transmission can be built because we built similarinfrastructure several decades ago, but it is by no means an easyprocess," PG&E's Wan said.
B.C. green power resources are one of the keys.
"California and British Columbia have had a long-standing seasonaltrading relationship, and that's because down in California we aresummer-peaking [in electricity consumption] and you in B.C. arewinter-peaking," Wan said.
"We have been able through decades of trading to share ourresources on a seasonal basis, and that has gone quite well, ingeneral. From that perspective, we are trading parties ... we shareresources."
Doug Little, vice-president of customer service and strategydevelopment at BCTC, said discussions are at "at a very preliminarystage," and while the project looks "promising" from B.C.'s side,"it's too early to say whether it will go ahead or not."
"We can say we have taken a preliminary look at the overalleconomic feasibility of the line, and concluded it makes sense togo on to the next step and start doing some engineering studies andso on."
There is also an elaborate system of checks and balances todetermine whether it's a good deal for B.C.
Little said the project would need approval from both the B.C.Utilities Commission and the National Energy Board before it couldgo ahead. There would be similar scrutiny in the U.S., he added.
This is not the only project aimed at taking B.C. resources south.
Sea Breeze Power Corp., a Vancouver-based company trading in the40-cent-a-share range on the TSX Venture Exchange, already hasauthorization from Canada's National Energy Board and the U.S.Department of Energy to run an undersea cable from the southern tipof Vancouver Island to Port Angeles, Wash., via the Strait of Juande Fuca.
This link, notes Sea Breeze president Paul Manson, would give poweranother route to flow between B.C. and the U.S. grid, enhancing thereliability to Vancouver Island's power supply, as well asproviding an additional framework -- and an extra market -- forwind power projects on the island.
"There are just vast renewables in the northwest, right up intoAlaska. The first of these great renewables is wind. What we needto realize this potential is additional transmission," Manson saidin an interview.
The ballpark cost of the full project is about $450 million, andManson said Sea Breeze is unlikely to attract investment until ithas a full roster of engineering studies and other background workto accompany the federal permits.
Nonetheless, the notion of a privately owned transmission linefacilitating the delivery of electricity into the U.S. market,without the comfort of public ownership, is drawing critics.
So is the Selkirk-to-California project.
"It's no secret that the U.S. -- particularly western states suchas California -- is desperate for additional sources of energy,"said Melissa Davis, executive director of B.C. Citizens for PublicPower. "And it's no secret that B.C. possesses the naturalresources to generate this additional power. But at what cost?
"Hydro power is 'green' only insofar as it generates no greenhousegas emissions. But there are numerous additional environmentalimpacts to consider if new projects are required in order to supplypower to the U.S. -- logging, road construction, flooding, andthreats to numerous aquatic species and wildlife."
Analyst John Calvert -- whose recent book, Liquid Gold, assertsthat B.C. is "rapidly losing public control of our electricitysystem" -- concurred.
"There is a significant environmental impact from these wind farms,and the worst-case scenario is that we get the environmental damagewhile utility firms in California plus the investors who own thesefacilities get all the benefits.
"The question is, what's in it for the people of B.C.?"
B.C. Energy Minister Richard Neufeld said the benefits of theSelkirk line are mutual, not exclusive to the United States.
"We are dependent on the U.S. for a big part of our electricitytoday, and have been for seven of the last 10 years. If it hadn'tbeen for that transmission line, our lights wouldn't be on. Weactually need electricity from them to keep going," Neufeld said.
"We need to actually keep increasing the capacity of thosetransmission lines to meet our own needs. That's what we have to dofirst. But in the meantime we should be looking at opportunities toactually have green power and export it to the U.S., and make moneyat it. I don't think there's anything wrong with that."