Privatization of Canada's electrical grid accelerating

[jesseps]

Canadians tend to think of power generation as a public utility — a crucial piece of infrastructure that governments are duty-bound to provide and oversee. But in Canada, the responsibility of managing the electricity grid is no longer a question of public trust; increasingly, it's a matter of private enterprise.

 

And with the country facing increasing demand for electricity and a need for massive investments to upgrade an aging power grid, governments eager to avoid tax hikes are helping to accelerate the trend.

 

"It used to be all large, Crown-owned utilities, but governments are moving towards this [privatized] model in concerted ways," says Kent Brown, who heads up BluEarth Renewables Inc. The Calgary-based company is just one of many private firms now involved with supplying Canada's growing electricity needs.

 

A CBC News analysis found that roughly a quarter of Canada's total current generation capacity of 127,024 megawatts is generated by private firms. The rest still comes from more recognizable public utilities such as Ontario Power Generation, Hydro Quebec, BC Hydro and others.

 

But by 2020, private generation is set to rise to more than a third, or 36 per cent, of Canada's power output — and that's just tallying projects that are already officially planned. Many more private plants are in the early stages of design, and are securing the necessary regulatory and environmental approvals.

 

(Courtesy of CBC News)

 

You can read rest of the article by clicking on the link

[Cyrus]

LOL only the CBC would produce tripe of that stripe

 

hooray for privatisation of electricity!

 

I love how they blame the privatisation on blackouts in California when the state has emissions limits. Presumably the only way they would avoid the blackouts then if the utility was still public would be for the government to break its own laws

 

Ontario is rightly pissed about expensive electricity, but what "freer" market... they never actually privatised anything and it is the new "eco" policies of the current government that are basically responsible for massive increases in the cost of electricity in the province. If they had privatised the production (or even just left it alone) they would have avoided the issue...

 

And for enviornmental protection you can't beat private systems, after all, nuclear has too much capital cost and fuel is too expensive. Look at all the combined-cycle gas plants and wind farms being put up by TransAlta and ATCO and Emera (who bought out Nova Scotia Power from the province years ago) partnering with Nalcor in the Lower Churchill hydro project.

[Aurélien]

Je n'ai rien en soi contre certaines privatisations. Seulement, je me demandais pourquoi on devrait privatiser Hydro-Québec et la SAQ, sachant que ces deux compagnies d'État sont rentables??

[Davidbourque]

la division Transport Hydro n'a pas besoin d'être privatisé. En réalité Hydro a été cassé en 4 parties pour pouvoir vendre de l'énergie au States. Une des raison principale qui rend le réseaux d'Hydro si solide vs l'Ontario et les États Unis est qu'il n'est pas en phase (poste de conversion à chaque ligne d'exportation) ce que les autres réseaux n'ont pas.

 

C'est pour ça aussi que le Québec n'a pas été touché par l'immense Blackout qui avait touché le nord est des États Unis. Sans parler que le réseaux de télécom pour le contrôle des lignes est à la fine pointe de la technologies et répond a des standard très très élevé. (latence minimal, engorgement minimal, totalement dédié, etc..)

[monctezuma]

On devrait tous être très fier d'Hydro-Qc et contre sa privatisation. Je préfère de loin avoir le siège social sur René-Lévesque que sur sur Avenue of the Americas à New-York ou ailleur dans le monde, très probablement en Chine, et que les profits servent à payer mon médecin de famille au lieu de payer la 44ième Bucatti d'un milliardaire déjà trop riche.

[Davidbourque]

Hydro restera publique, cependant, ce que je n'aime pas, c'est de voir qu'ils ont donné l'éolien au privé alors qu'on aurait très bien pu développer notre propre expertise et rentabilisé le tout tout en s'assurant que les emplois demeurent au Québec.

 

C'est la privatisation contourné, on ne construit plus de nouvelles centrales, au lieux on achète l'énergie au privé. Et puis sur les Éolienne, on fait aucun profits dans l'état des choses, on paie plus cher l'électricité qu'on la revend pour que l'élément privé puisse dégagé un profit....

 

Notre expertise dans les réseaux de transport et la construction de centrale nous a valu des contrats partout dans le monde. Des contrats qui ont rapporté de l'argent à Hydro. Cependant, on ballait tout du revers de la main au profit du privé...

[Cyrus]

Je n'ai rien en soi contre certaines privatisations. Seulement, je me demandais pourquoi on devrait privatiser Hydro-Québec et la SAQ, sachant que ces deux compagnies d'État sont rentables??

 

Hydro est rentable seulement a cause de leur contrat avec le Terre-Neuve

[Davidbourque]

Hydro est rentable seulement a cause de leur contrat avec le Terre-Neuve

 

Boff, faut pas oublier que c'est hydro qui a payer pour une grosse partit de la construction de la centrale et les lignes de transport et en plus, il paie les frais d'entretien et le salaire du personnels affecté a la centrale.

 

Plein de chose que les newfies ne diront pas ...

 

En plus, le gouvernement du Québec à garantit la date de construction pour que les investisseurs privés achète des bons pour financé la partie de la construction qu'Hydro Québec n'assumait pas.

 

Les terres-neuviens ne sont pas aussi perdants qu'ils aiment le faire croire dans l'histoire. Sans le québec, il parlerait peux être encore de construire la centrale...

 

Comment ils nous remercie ? à grand coup de procès (tjrs gagné par le Québec) et en tetant le provincial pour qu'il passent une ligne sous marine vers terre-neuves et ensuite vers la nouvelle-écosses.

 

Demandez vous pas pourquoi le Québec ne veux pas qu'ils utilisent leur réseaux de transports pour vendre de l'électricité au states. Tu fais pas de faveurs à ceux que t'aide et qu'il e remercie en te crachant dans la face...

 

Le Québec lui voulais à l'époque construire des centrales sur son territoire pour éviter un futur conflit.

Edited April 6, 2011 by Davidbourque

[jesseps]

Canada’s power grid will need an annual investment of $15 billion for the next 20 years in order to maintain aging facilities and meet rising demand, according to a report released Thursday.

 

Canada’s Electricity Infrastructure: Building a Case for Investment, a study funded by the Canadian Electrical Association and conducted by the Conference Board of Canada, suggests that a total investment of $293.8 billion is necessary between now and 2030 to service old infrastructure and boost power generation from renewable sources like wind, solar and biomass energy.

 

"We want to be open and frank with Canadians, because this will all be reflected in the price of electricity," says Pierre Guimond, president and CEO of the Canadian Electricity Association.

 

Investment in Canada’s electrical grid was high in the 1970s and '80s, as power producers attempted to meet a significant growth in demand. The result was overbuilding, and supply overwhelmed demand. That helped to keep the cost of electricity low for several decades, but now major new investment is needed to replace worn out plants.

 

"Most of what is out there was built before 1980. We have been focused on keeping prices low and keeping reliability high for all these decades. We’ve maintained the system, but we’ve not added much large capacity to it, except for some Hydro Quebec projects," says Guimond.

 

"New neighbourhoods have popped up all over the country as the population increased and we became more urbanized, and this led to a lot of increase in the distribution sector investment."

 

According to the report, the largest chunk of the recommended investment — $195.7 billion — is required for power generation, with another $62.3 billion required to improve the distribution system and $35.8 billion for transmission.

 

The necessary investments in generation identified in the report include building new plants with renewable energy sources as well as refurbishing, repowering or retiring existing stations.

 

Quebec is the biggest generator of power in Canada, with a 2010 capacity of 47,013 megawatts (MW), while Ontario is second with 33,845 MW and British Columbia third with 15,093 MW. According to the report, Ontario is proposing the largest increase in capacity (11,572 MW), followed by Alberta (7,543 MW) and B.C. (4,258 MW).

 

Canada is a net exporter of electricity and diverts seven to nine percent of its capacity to the American market. Canada’s electricity sector employs 116,000 and contributed $24.6 billion to the economy in 2010.

 

Len Coad, director of environment, energy and technology policy for the Conference Board of Canada, says building a new diesel, fuel oil or natural gas facility costs about $2 million for every megawatt of generating capacity, while nuclear and coal technology costs about $4.5 million per megawatt.

 

Refurbishing an existing facility can cost up to 90 per cent of building a new plant, he says.

 

"Essentially what it comes down to, especially for thermal plants – coal, natural gas, fuel oil, diesel – is at the end of the [plant’s] useful life, when you repower, you’re essentially taking everything out, leaving the site and the connection to the grid, and starting over," says Coad.

 

To generate the report, the Conference Board of Canada first identified all facilities that are operational, under construction, planned or proposed across the country. To determine future energy demand, Coad and his fellow researchers used the National Energy Board’s outlook up to 2020, and then did their own analysis to project demand to 2030.

 

The report forecasts a continued reliance on both public and private investment in Canada's electrical grid, without recommending specific arrangements.

 

"In B.C., Manitoba and Quebec, you have a private entity that’s actually building the generation facility, but the revenue stream is guaranteed or has strong assurances because there’s a long-term contract with a Crown utility. Here in Alberta, where I live, everything’s private, so you don’t have the same situation," Coad says. "But what should be public or private, we didn’t address."

 

"Consumers are the ones who pay for electricity, and because of these investments, they will be paying more for electricity," Guimond says. "But, I can add quickly to that, electricity in this country is a bargain – always has been, and if we have anything to say about it, always will be."

 

(Courtesy of CBC News)