[Editor’s note: Of course this is far from the whole story, but worth checking out anyway]
From the Vancouver Sun – Feb 23, 2011
by Derrick Penner
VANCOUVER – BC Hydro calls its new $6-billion capital plan a
“regeneration” of its system, one that the Crown corporation anticipates
will cost the average consumer 32 per cent more in rate increases over
the next three years, and 50 per cent over the next five years.
On
Tuesday, BC Hydro unveiled the latest capital project ahead of filing
its three-year application for power rates with the B.C. Utilities
Commission -an $860-million upgrade of the Ruskin Dam and generating
station near Mission.
That rate application will seek
9.73-per-cent rate increases in each of the next three years, which
would raise the average homeowner bill of $71 per month by 32 per cent
to $93.81 between 2012 and 2014.
BC Hydro CEO Dave Cobb said that
future increases are speculative, but in background information on the
utility’s website, Hydro anticipates rate increases of seven per cent in
the subsequent two years, meaning a 50-per-cent hike over five years.
Cobb
argued the increase is a necessary hit on consumers’ utility bills,
given the lack of reinvestment in its system since the mid-1990s.
“Unfortunately
to some degree, I would say, these tough decisions were put off and
pushed back and pushed back,” Cobb said during a conference call.
“And
we’re now at the point where we believe the responsible thing to do on
behalf of our customers is to regenerate our system and invest in it
responsibly, but only to the extent that we have to.”
BC Hydro is
forecasting that on top of the need to upgrade its existing power plants
and transmission lines, it will need to meet a 40-per-cent increase in
demand for electricity over the next 20 years.
And Cobb added the
Crown corporation will put a big focus on conservation in its plan. Its
goal is to meet 66 per cent of new power needs by getting consumers to
use less electricity.
“If we don’t conserve as much as we’re planning to, we’ll have to invest more, build more,” he said.
The
government opposition’s new energy critic, however, said BC Hydro needs
more public oversight of its capital plan to prove that all elements of
it are in the public interest.
“There’s no doubt BC Hydro needs
to do some reinvesting in its existing power generation projects,” Doug
Donaldson, the NDP MLA for Stikine, said in an interview. “But I would
say if the B.C. Liberals’ idea of an energy plan is a 50-per-cent rate
hike over five years, that’s something most people would find
unacceptable. That’s not an energy plan at all.”
While BC Hydro’s
application for the rate increase is subject to a hearing by the B.C.
Utilities Commission, Donaldson noted that the Clean Energy Act passed
by government in 2010 exempts elements of BC Hydro’s capital plan from
B.C. Utilities Commission oversight, such as its $930-million project to
replace 1.8 million manual electricity meters with electronic smart
meters.
“The alternative is to open up the books so we actually
know how the money is being spent, especially in regard to private-power
projects,” Donaldson added.