Take a good look,this picture of Burrard thermal is what it looks like most of the year,it hardly ever runs,and as for pollution,lets have a look at the really big polluters in metro Vancouver. (Part III in the series.Burrard thermal)Lets take the media to task on this one, Palmer/Baldrey/Smyth and Marc Jaccard,you will hear them slag burrard thermal,yet not one of those clowns has the balls to talk about the big polluters, I just wonder what is in their investment portfolio`s, I suspect that they own IPP stock, and no point letting the facts get in the way of an investment opportunity eh boys?
Lets start with listing the largest GHG emitters in metro Vancouver.
- By far the biggest emitter is the automobile, the most current data states that the auto accounts for 25% of GHG emission in metro Vancouver, and of course Gordon Campbell and his road building coalition want that to stay that way,take the 10 lane super bridge under construction(port Mann) ---Campbell has refused to look at light rail from the valley, the right away exists already,a complete light rail system could be up and running from Vancouver all the way to Chilliwak for less money than the new port mann bridge.
But we wouldn`t want to take any work away from that American company based in Omaha Nebraska, Kiewet Construction would we, after all they just finished the multi billion contract to upgrade the sea to sky highway,and they have almost finished the pitt river bridge,just in time build a 4 billion dollar port mann and tear down the old port mann bridge,which has at least 50 years of life in it (the cost to tear down the old port mann bridge is over 300 million dollars)
The west coast express is such a huge success,the fact that the NDP got that going is one of the reasons Campbell refuses to direct Translink to think ground level rail.
So now we know that the auto is the big polluter and Campbell is insuring that never stops, but surely Burrard thermal must be the second biggest polluter in metro Vancouver,nope,no sirree bob,it`s not even close,lets talk cement.
Here is the list of the top 4 single point polluters in metro Vancouver for 2005
- The largest single point producer of GHG in metro Vancouver was Lehigh`s Delta cement plant was in first place releasing 1.12 million tonnes of GHGs.
- Lafarge`s Richmond cement plant produced 863.000 tonnes of GHGs
- Chevron refinery in Burnaby was number 3 at 430.000 tonnes of GHGs
- Burrard thermal came in at a distant 4th....A mere 70.000 tonnes of GHGs
Lets talk Burrard thermal upgrades.
The 950 MW burrard thermal generating plant (BTGP) in Port Moody which burns natural gas to supply electricity has the capacity to generate approximately 10% of the total electricity demand supplied by BC hydro.
A number of improvements in recent years such as the installation of Selective Catalytic Reduction Units have significantly reduced its emissions of smog producing pollutants by approximately 90% and that (e.g.) in 2006,the BTGP is estimated to have only contributed only 0.05% of the NOX emissions in the lower fraser valley.
A number of improvements in recent years such as the installation of dechlorination equipment and reduced use of chlorine in cooling water have reduced its impact on water quality in burrard inlet.
The BTGP is located in the lower mainland close to BCs major population center and thus is strategically located to supply electricity during emergency conditions such as storms which could effect transmission lines.
The BTGP continues to play a key role in providing voltage regulation on transmission lines through use of its generators as synchrous condensers and it could cost up to $76 million to install new equipment to replace this function.
The electricity produced by BTGP is a firm source that can be delivered locally on demand unlike the intermittent and more distant sources of private power producers.
The BTGP played a key role by producing electricity during the critical winter months of 2006/07 (4 units were operated as required,total 625 MW of capacity)
The BTGP has rarely been used at full capacity,has been well maintained and thus continues to have a reasonable life span well beyond 2014.
Natural gas is the cleanest fossil fuel which generates the least amount of greenhouse gasses per energy unit and is a source to which many jurisdictions are now turning instead of coal and oil.
Operating BTGP during winter months to meet peak energy demand during cold periods with short daylight hours is the period of the year when the generation of smog-producing chemicals is of least concern.
Using burrard thermal rather than purchasing electricity from coal-fired sources outside the province would be consistent with provincial energy policies to promote self-sufficiency and minimize GHG production.
The provincial energy plan indicates there could be a shortage of electricity to meet future provincial needs in the absence of a continued reliance on BTGP.
BTGP provides local jobs,revenues to the city and is a valued member of the port Moody community.
Keeping the BTGP operating as long as possible will keep options open regarding a potential re-powering of the facility at some point in the future.(read the story here)
So there you have it, Gordon Campbell has ignored gas flaring,Marc Jaccard has poo-fooed gas flaring,cement plants,refineries don`t pay one dime of carbon tax on their emissions.
The Carbon tax legislation was rammed through the legislature without debate in the last hour of the spring session of the 2008 legislature in Victoria,the reason it was rammed through is because there was no hard data to prove that Campbell`s carbon tax would do anything except cost consumers.And that has been proven to be fact because since the implementation of the carbon tax in july 2008 there has been an addition of 130.000 vehicles put on the roads in BC.
But this is all part of the Campbell pattern,the man has been nothing but a compulsive liar from day one when he became premier in 2001...He lied about BC Rail,tearing up contracts,he has lied about the effectiveness of the carbon tax,his government has lied about security costs for 2010,lied about the cost of infrastructure and has totally manufactured phony import/export numbers in regards to BCs power needs,he lied about the HST,he lied about the size of the deficit,the man(Campbell) has proven to be a compulsive liar over and over again.
Burrard thermal has been upgraded considerably,and burrard thermal can be upgraded again to be the most efficient natural gas burning electricity producer in the world,why would we not upgrade the facility instead of buggering up our rivers,killing off fish and bear habitat,taking a huge financial risk with the spot market for electrical sales as well as the NAFTA implications,because under NAFTA once we provide a natural resource service under NAFTA we will not be able to stop it.
Are we to believe Gordon Campbell on anything,the man involved with BC Rail,the government that either lost,or ordered documents destroyed during the last provincial election,a government that is run by the likes of Paul Taylor,Patrick Kinsella and Ken Dobell.
Campbell`s energy plan is a fraud,meanwhile big polluters get a free ride while us BCers are paying a useless carbon tax,a tax that has set BC back from real environmental measures, a carbon tax that even Jaccard has stated in it`s present form is useless.
(Part IV The BCUC report to follow,my analyses)
The Straight Goods
Cheers-Eyes Wide Open
5 comments:
Independent Power Producer (IPP) Run-of-the-River Technology FACTs:
Independent Power Producers pay 3 times more social benefits to government than BC Hydro does.
Private power IPPs pay $25 per MWh in taxes, water license rental fees, and community benefits to the government. About 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).
BC Hydro, on the other hand, pays only $8 per MWh as dividend, water license fees, 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. In fiscal 2009, BC Hydro paid no dividends to the government. 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.
A small 10 MW run of river IPP plant pays about $1,400,000 a year to various levels of government, most of it to the local government. On the other hand, BC Hydro pays only $420,000 in water rental and dividends for the same amount of power to the Province, including a negligible ($2,000) “grant-in-lieu” to the local government.
Private IPPs generate green, renewable and clean power at $50 to $90 a MWh. This compares to $80 a MWh that BC consumers pay. BC Hydro on the other hand is a very high cost producer - $110 a MWh, from its own Aberfeldie run-of-the-river project that it has just completed. The cost of production at the proposed Site C mega-dam on the Peace River will be about $160 a MWh.
No IPP run-of-the-river project is on a salmon bearing reach of a stream, and the environmental impact is minor and can be compensated. 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 generally 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.greenenergybc.ca/powerploy.html
http://www.greenenergybc.ca/Assets/PowerPloy_Intro.wmv
http://www.greenenergybc.ca/Assets/PowerPloy_Chapter_01.wmv
Independent Power Producer (IPP) Run-of-the-River Technology FACTs:
IPPs using run-of-the-river technology can produce green renewable electrical energy at about half the cost of BC Hydro.
IPPs generate power at $50 to $90 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 also pay $25 a MWh in taxes, water license rental fees, and first nation royalty to governments – mostly to the local government – three times more than what BC Hydro pays. BC Hydro pays only $8 a MWh in dividend, water license rental fees and taxes to the government. In Fiscal 2009, BC Hydro has paid no dividends to government on $20 billion of public assets that it manages.
BC Hydro on the other hand is a very high cost producer - $110 a MWh, from its own Aberfeldie run-of-the-river project that it has just completed. The cost of production at the proposed Site C mega-dam on the Peace River will be about $160 a MWh.
BC Hydro has extremely high internal overhead and costs. Although BC Hydro can produce some power at less than $6 a MWh from our gigantic heritage dams paid by BC citizens (in the 1960s) with no interest expense remaining – BC Hydro then sells this power at 13 times the cost ($80 a MWh) to BC citizens who own these dams. The average salary and benefits at BC Hydro is $100,000 per person a year (see the Financial Openness Report on BC Hydro website and this includes salaries less than $75,000 a 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 person.
BC Hydro charges the ratepayers and taxpayers $1.4 million per GWh in costs to produce non-green power (Site C). Due to high costs, BC Hydro is unable to produce power economically 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 of BC Hydro. Private power producers can produce power from projects as small as 5 MW by using local talent and labour.
The cost saving by IPPs is passed on to the consumer when large number of IPPs compete for the few power purchase contracts offered by BC Hydro. 17,000 GWh of power is being offered by about 150 competing IPP projects to a single buyer, BC Hydro – which will only purchase 3,000 GWh. This competitive bidding process assures that IPP power is priced at a fair market value for green and renewable energy. 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 12,000 major streams and 280,000 minor streams and creeks in BC and only 30 IPP plants in all of BC (10 more under construction). The water license held by an IPP terminates in about 25 years and it is up to the government of the day to renew it.
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.
While a run-of-the-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-the-river production complements BC Hydro's mega-dams. Energy is stored behind BC Hydro dams for low-water periods, and many IPPs also have lakes for winter storage. Furthermore, BC Hydro is contractually not obliged to buy snowmelt power that exceeds 25% of the annual production.
http://www.ippbc.com/EN/media_room/frequently_asked_questions/
http://www.ippbc.com/EN/media_room/fact_sheets_and_issue_sheets/
http://www.greenenergybc.ca/
Your statistics are wrong.
BC is short 6,000 GWh of power.
By ramping Burrard Thermal up to 6000 GWh per year (20 times more than what it produces today), the amount of pollution and GHG emissions will be phenomenal.
Environmentalists are against this GHG belching dinosaur to continue contributing to climate change and ramping it up 20 times higher.
Sorry to disapoint you fellows from the IPP club,the BCUC have thoughtfully considered Burrard thermal,the long term load forcast from BC Hydro was so exaggerated that the BCUC saw right through it.
The "doctored" submissions from IPPbc and Naikun and BC Hydro(the Campbell government)were so grossly inflated,and that is exactly why those groups exaggerated the future load forecast was to make the case that burrard thermal would be running full out!
Once the BCUC determined the appropiate future load forecast the "Straw man" argument of Burrard thermal disappeared.
THE BCUC has designated burrard thermal as a mid-range INSURANCE policy(up to 3000 GWH)
Even though burrard thermal hasn`t run at those levels since 2001,it`s capable of producing emergency power.
I suggest you read part IV in the series...:The BCUC DECISION:
Sorry boys,try again next year with your next proposal to the BCUC.
Of course,I know you find it hard to believe but I have said it before and I will say it again..."Gordon Campbell has killed his own private power baby,we simply can`t afford it while running massive deficits,there is no where to hide the power losses"
Cheers-Eyes Wide Open
3000 GWh - for the GHG belching Burrard Thermal. What a disaster. NOx, particulates, smog, and hydrocarbons galore.
And then when BC Hydro needs 6000 GWh - no problem, just turn it up double.
And then spend millions to keep this dinosaur alive, and jack up the power rates to pay for this inefficient abomination. And then reduce the health care and education budget by a few hundred million dollars to pay for upgrading Burrard so it can burn more gas and keep COPE 378 happy. Surely this being the NDP's plan.
You fake environmentalists are simply against private ownership and the environment is a throwaway thing for you. Global warming and fossil fuel burning is no problem for the anti-progressive socialists (USSR destroyed its own environment).
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