B.C. Hydro Launches Island Plant Bid

The filing of the application for the Vancouver Island Generation Project is the first step toward the construction of the facility, which Hydro contends is crucial to ensuring reliable power supply on the Island.

"The VIGP is needed to address the high-voltage direct current cable system's expected retirement and to meet long-term load growth," said Hydro's vice-president of distribution, Bev Van Ruyven.

Currently the load -- the Island produces about 20 per cent of the power it consumes -- is being carried by aging cables that Hydro says are too expensive to replace, and that on-Island generation is needed to stave off California-style brownouts.

"If we don't get the plant or the pipeline we're in big trouble," said Hydro spokesperson Elisha Odowichuk.

That argument doesn't wash with groups opposed to the VIGP and the $340-million Georgia Strait Crossing natural gas pipeline which will provide the fuel.

Many of those groups have told the National Energy Board joint review panel's hearings into the GSX the pipeline and by extension the VIGP are unnecessary.

With the filing of the CPCN application, the David Suzuki Foundation once again raised the environmental concerns surrounding the project.

"Building this new gas plant means more greenhouse gas emissions, exposure to volatile gas prices and high costs," said Gerry Scott, director of the foundations' climate change program. "B.C. Hydro has not presented a clear, credible reason why this plant must be built."

Scott, while not surprised at the filing, said it's been hard to keep up with how the province and Hydro change their tune with regard to the VIGP.

"There have been a number of different, often conflicting, statements that have been made by Hydro and government," he said, noting the province has said Hydro was not to be the builder, and must sell the project. And in January, Hydro, only two weeks after saying it would shelve the project, changed its mind and gave it the green light.

Energy and Mines Minister Richard Neufeld said that Hydro would have to divest itself of both the pipeline and the plant once they are up and running.

Odowichuk says there have been no offers as yet, but they have entertained some inquiries into the VIGP.

"We want to get the right price for it," she said, conceding Hydro is not about to say what that price is.