Overall a good read. No doubt that Dennis Browne was aligned with the Liberals. He squawked some about Nfld Power, but that was more to give the impression to the public, (who knows little of Nfld Hydro, and Nfld Power )that Nfld Power is the one who sends out the rising power bills. I'd say no more than one in 100 of the public has a clue about the understanding of the difference of these outfits and what they do.
I'm not sure that the feds back stopping loads for infrastructure to double electricity transmission is the cat's meow. They did this for Muskrat Fall overall, and if I'm correct, the TD Bank provides 30 year loans for about 3 % interest rate that shaved off about 1 billion or so of the long term costs.
There's a difference between more transmission capacity and reliable transmission. One giant flaw with Muskrat is the unreliable transmission. Nfld average hours down per year(excluding planned downtime for maintainence) is only 2.8 hours loss of power, from unexpected events each year. That is a rather good achievement for both Nfld Hydro (the main producer with transmission lines at 69kw and higher) and Nfld Power (the distributor with transmission at 69Kv and lower,....... including low voltage of 115/230 v to your house. Closer spacing of utility poles in one difference for Nlfd Power success (compared to other provinces) to handle the high wind and icing loads typical in Nfld)
So will the Fed backstop Mr Risley on his new wind pipedream for a DC line from Nfld to NB and then back to NS, as an alternate to his wind to hydrogen pipedream? There are many good projects where reliable transmission can be done, including on our island.
We have been constrained for decades as to getting sufficient transmission of existing island hydro power to the Eastern Avalon, and therefore needing more thermal back up at Holyrood, or gas turbines as Hardwoods station.........plus the fuel storage and costs and pollution. Nfld Hydo Planning (if worth their salt) should have transmission studies done, and costed and ready to tender. Like wise with wind additions, which need a lot of transmission capability. Did not Stan Marshall confess that MFs didn't solve that problem and Nlfd Power should have formally objected to make this public? Why was that not done?
Are we at the start of a new era? I'll believe when I hear of a gutting of those at Nfld Hydro responsible for the MFs fiasco and those there who supported the stupid MOU. And an order from the Energy Dept, to both utilities, to start reducing the island winter peak demand by 2 percent, or more, per year. This is a 35 MW demand reduction per year on average, so for 10 years would shave 350 MW off our peak winter load ( which hit 1730 MW with a arctic vortex situation). The warmer winters from climate change is a big help in that direction, and helps residents by 3 fold for energy savings, when they use electric heat pumps instead of baseboard heaters.
For that to happen, both utilities need to get serious about energy efficiency and not be repeatedly worst in Canada for that (as noted for many years by Carlton University, who yearly monitors and make s public this through out Canada. This means engineers of Nlfd Power, Peter UpShall, and others must get replaced, and his better half at Nlfd Hydro likewise, for good cause , of scamming the public for 25 years. They have perfected the "Art of the Deal" with PR to successfully scam th public via concocked studies and measures of little benefit. What new Consumer Advocate will be able to hold them accountable? How much political contributions are made to both parties here to favour the power companies, with profits, and not the ratepayer, as to savings?
Not sure Ed if you agree with much I say here, but like to hear your opinions, which are not often wrong, and I prefer to be challenged, if I'm off base.
Did the province and/or NL Hydro every formally respond to or counter the 2005 offer from Quebec and Ontario or did they just ignore it and create NALCOR to take on Muskrat Falls on its own?
yes. Danny Williams rejected the deal when he announced the “go alone” idea, which he also said might involve partners.
Someone I know has tried to get a copy of the proposal since it was a cabinet document and we’re outside the 20 year window in which all cabinet documents are considered secret. Right now it’s being held up because the bureaucrats want to let both Ontario and Quebec object to the disclosure of any portion of the document. That’s allowed under ATIPPA. I expected Hydro-Québec Will make a blanket demand that the entire document be kept secret for the blanket excuse of trade or business secrets.
The lack of information from NLH is concerning. I have an ATIPPA request into them concerning monthly production and sales figures from Churchill Falls. The response has been delayed. By way of contrast, see https://www.iso-ne.com/isoexpress/ .
It is troublesome but par for the course. I went looking for info on volume of water spilled since there had been a serious increase in wasted water since 2016. Total shut down as it was deemed commerically sensitive. We need to give the ISO NL a serious shake and make it something other than a subsidiary of NALCOR.
Overall a good read. No doubt that Dennis Browne was aligned with the Liberals. He squawked some about Nfld Power, but that was more to give the impression to the public, (who knows little of Nfld Hydro, and Nfld Power )that Nfld Power is the one who sends out the rising power bills. I'd say no more than one in 100 of the public has a clue about the understanding of the difference of these outfits and what they do.
I'm not sure that the feds back stopping loads for infrastructure to double electricity transmission is the cat's meow. They did this for Muskrat Fall overall, and if I'm correct, the TD Bank provides 30 year loans for about 3 % interest rate that shaved off about 1 billion or so of the long term costs.
There's a difference between more transmission capacity and reliable transmission. One giant flaw with Muskrat is the unreliable transmission. Nfld average hours down per year(excluding planned downtime for maintainence) is only 2.8 hours loss of power, from unexpected events each year. That is a rather good achievement for both Nfld Hydro (the main producer with transmission lines at 69kw and higher) and Nfld Power (the distributor with transmission at 69Kv and lower,....... including low voltage of 115/230 v to your house. Closer spacing of utility poles in one difference for Nlfd Power success (compared to other provinces) to handle the high wind and icing loads typical in Nfld)
So will the Fed backstop Mr Risley on his new wind pipedream for a DC line from Nfld to NB and then back to NS, as an alternate to his wind to hydrogen pipedream? There are many good projects where reliable transmission can be done, including on our island.
We have been constrained for decades as to getting sufficient transmission of existing island hydro power to the Eastern Avalon, and therefore needing more thermal back up at Holyrood, or gas turbines as Hardwoods station.........plus the fuel storage and costs and pollution. Nfld Hydo Planning (if worth their salt) should have transmission studies done, and costed and ready to tender. Like wise with wind additions, which need a lot of transmission capability. Did not Stan Marshall confess that MFs didn't solve that problem and Nlfd Power should have formally objected to make this public? Why was that not done?
Are we at the start of a new era? I'll believe when I hear of a gutting of those at Nfld Hydro responsible for the MFs fiasco and those there who supported the stupid MOU. And an order from the Energy Dept, to both utilities, to start reducing the island winter peak demand by 2 percent, or more, per year. This is a 35 MW demand reduction per year on average, so for 10 years would shave 350 MW off our peak winter load ( which hit 1730 MW with a arctic vortex situation). The warmer winters from climate change is a big help in that direction, and helps residents by 3 fold for energy savings, when they use electric heat pumps instead of baseboard heaters.
For that to happen, both utilities need to get serious about energy efficiency and not be repeatedly worst in Canada for that (as noted for many years by Carlton University, who yearly monitors and make s public this through out Canada. This means engineers of Nlfd Power, Peter UpShall, and others must get replaced, and his better half at Nlfd Hydro likewise, for good cause , of scamming the public for 25 years. They have perfected the "Art of the Deal" with PR to successfully scam th public via concocked studies and measures of little benefit. What new Consumer Advocate will be able to hold them accountable? How much political contributions are made to both parties here to favour the power companies, with profits, and not the ratepayer, as to savings?
Not sure Ed if you agree with much I say here, but like to hear your opinions, which are not often wrong, and I prefer to be challenged, if I'm off base.
Did the province and/or NL Hydro every formally respond to or counter the 2005 offer from Quebec and Ontario or did they just ignore it and create NALCOR to take on Muskrat Falls on its own?
yes. Danny Williams rejected the deal when he announced the “go alone” idea, which he also said might involve partners.
Someone I know has tried to get a copy of the proposal since it was a cabinet document and we’re outside the 20 year window in which all cabinet documents are considered secret. Right now it’s being held up because the bureaucrats want to let both Ontario and Quebec object to the disclosure of any portion of the document. That’s allowed under ATIPPA. I expected Hydro-Québec Will make a blanket demand that the entire document be kept secret for the blanket excuse of trade or business secrets.
The lack of information from NLH is concerning. I have an ATIPPA request into them concerning monthly production and sales figures from Churchill Falls. The response has been delayed. By way of contrast, see https://www.iso-ne.com/isoexpress/ .
It is troublesome but par for the course. I went looking for info on volume of water spilled since there had been a serious increase in wasted water since 2016. Total shut down as it was deemed commerically sensitive. We need to give the ISO NL a serious shake and make it something other than a subsidiary of NALCOR.