CHARBONNEAU – There’s no doubt about the need for the Site C dam now
Generator being installed at Site C. (Image: BC Hydro)
I COULDN’T make up my mind eight years ago about the need for Site C dam on the Peace River.
My first reaction was: “you can’t have enough electricity.” Then I was persuaded by arguments against the dam. There were the cost overruns, the technical problems of constructing the dam, the loss of agricultural lands and Indigenous land claims.
Adding to uncertainty was the claim that the electricity produced wasn’t needed. In 2015, I quoted economist Professor Marvin Shaffer from Simon Fraser University:
“The key question now is: should the government make an essentially irreversible decision to start construction on Site C potentially years before that decision actually needs to be made?”
Back then, studies indicated that we had 50 per cent more electricity than we needed. And that didn’t include the large potential available under rights of the Columbia River Treaty.
The worry was that we would have so much green electricity that we would have to sell it at a discount.
What a joke.
I now realise that my first intuition was correct — you can’t have too much electricity, In today’s world of demand for electricity needed to lower industrial greenhouse gas emissions, for replacing household furnaces with heat pumps, and the need of recharging electric cars, the demand will only grow.
To all that, add the shortage of electricity in B.C. last year due to drought.
BC Hydro had to import a record amount of electricity in 2023 to make up for a domestic shortfall. BC Hydro blamed the continuing shortage of electricity on extreme and persistent drought conditions, which have dropped water levels in critical hydroelectric reservoirs.
In addition to the cost of Site C, we need to spend more. In announcing more hydro infrastructure, B.C. Premier Eby said:
“We’re in the third year of ongoing drought, and it is having an impact on reservoirs and the ability of BC Hydro to generate electricity at the level that they would like to.”
To all of the problems facing a secure, reliable power grid, weather is becoming more extreme as global warming sets in. Eight years ago, global warming was seen as a way of reducing electrical demand — warmer weather would reduce heating demands.
How naive.
Global warming actually increases the demand on the electrical grid through more air conditioning and heating demand.
With Site C ready next year, now we need to build the transmission lines to get the power where it’s needed. And even more generating capacity must be built.
BC Hydro estimates that electricity demand in the province will increase by at least 15 per cent between now and the end of the decade. Until now, demand has been increasing at just one per cent annually.
In another shift of thinking, B.C.’s NDP government will reverse the policy on private generators. Under the direction of Premier Campbell and the BC Liberals, run-of-river projects were developed.
They were scrapped because they were expensive and only worked best during spring runoff.
This will be the first time in 15 years that the government will be inviting private proponents to create new clean-power projects.
What a difference a few years makes.
David Charbonneau is a retired TRU electronics instructor who hosts a blog at http://www.eyeviewkamloops.wordpress.com.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Try anything but hydro
Just no sweetheart deals
Try geo thermal
Or fire up burrard thermal?
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Mr. Charbonneau, a deeper look at the contemporary Campbell-Clark BC Hydro years might explain the increased costs of electricity for BC users. Site C like Arrow Lakes that many criticized might be a benefit over time unless we branch out into building small cost-effective modular reactors (SMRs).
SMRs are advanced nuclear reactors that have a power capacity of up to 300 MW(e) per unit, which is about one-third of the generating capacity of traditional nuclear power reactors. SMRs, are mobile and suited for Canada which can produce a large amount of low-carbon electricity. Dams are huge CO2 producers due to vegetation decomposition under the water.
“A report released by B.C.’s provincial government says the previous Campbell-Clark government pressured BC Hydro into signing long-term contracts with independent power producers (IPPs) that will cost customers more than $16 billion over 20 years.” (CBC News)
The report by Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources Michelle Mungall made it very clear that the single most significant factor in BC Hydro pricing problems other than the contract with US sellers of energy, is increased purchases from independent power producers (IPPs) to which you allude.
The B.C.’s NDP government has reversed the policy on private generators implemented under the direction of Premier Campbell. Rafe Maier a former Liberal cabinet Minister was a strong opponent of the run of Rivers debacle.
The other significant yoke on the power user costs in BC is the contract with USA power users.
The contract forced a purchase RATE of excess power from USA at twice the cost of what it costs BC to produce. This forced purchase led to Clark Campbell increasing rates to the max allowed 10.5%. In fact, we were spilling water over the dams because we were forced by contract to purchase our own power sold to USA and then sold back to us at twice the cost.
Second, not only that the contract with California was brutal for BC. In the contract we had to purchase any surplus electricity from the US at US cost regardless of the cost of production in BC. We had to purchase back our own power at a substantially higher price then what we could sell it to the BC users
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