"It is not about blame," he said. "It is about facts.

"It is not about blame," he said. "It is about facts.

Imagine. These are words straight from Jack Kiers mouth. See the linked article.

http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/cityregion/article/1030359

And the comments to the article!!! Seems like Hill and Knowlton are back.

Well Folks, this three per cent rate hike to pay the deferral cost is the same one that The Ganong report reccomended to graham that should be paid right away when Lepreau is finally fininshed. But Graham and Kier wanted to delay it until the end of five years, and then let Hydro Quebec add some interest to it. So it would have been more than the three percent, and that would have been on top of the two percent inflation rate. And for the industrial customers, it would have included the 3% rate hike that HQ (sorry - the Quebec government) plans to implement starting in 2014. (see two posts down)

But I have a beef with my perception of what is transpiring out there.

Seems when MOU1 was announced, the general response was "Don't sell NB Power"

Seems when MOU2 was announced, the general response was "Don't sell NB Power"

Seems when the deal is dead, but the little old Dalhousie station is put on the chopping block, the general response is "Where's Dalhousie?? Does it burn a fossil fuel?" Maybe people are only interested in saving clean nuclear stations and hydro stations. I thought NB Power was ALL of NB Power.

Let 's see , This article was posted a week ago and got 58 comments. With the most thumbs up of 57.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2010/04/20/nb-dalhousie-generating-station.html#socialcomments

This article about Irving dropping the Lepreau rotors in the water and being sued was posted 10 hours ago and has 58 comments as well. The most thumbs up is already over 120.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2010/04/27/nb-lepreau-rotors-lawsuit.html

Seems people are just more interested when Irving makes the news for thier general screw up than some distant place far north of the big cities of NB that is dying a slow death.
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.While everyone mulls on that tidbid, lets finish off with another conspiracy theory :

"Let's see, $40M fine to Irving vs $475M cost in delay overruns. Plus Irving makes $M's from gas consumers as long as Lepreau is not putting out electricity.

Sounds like a good deal to me. For Irving that is.

It was an accident wasn't it?"

Dalhousie Power Plant up for SALE

Well, I'm quite sure everyone has seen the news.

Our elected officials have decided to break the law again by putting up the Dalhousie station for sale. It may not run much after it's cheap fuel source runs out, but until Lepreau is back online, it would be needed for winter peaking. So that makes it not a surplus asset, and not eligilbe for sale.

But it is. At least according to the CBC.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2010/04/20/nb-dalhousie-generating-station.html#socialcomments

I say that the huge gas feild under Dalhousie should be developed by NB Power to provide a source of the fuel. This way they don't have to pay market prices for the gas. Just enough to provide Petrolia with a handsome profit. If the feild is directly below the plant, then there would no main pipeline connection required. Therefore, the gas will not be priced at market rates. This would give Petrolia some profit, and allow them to futher develope the feild and ultimately allow for a pipeline connection. But, like the potash mine in Sussex, NB Power would have already written their own contract, and may get cheap fuel until scheduled end of the station.


Check out this 25 year old study of how several US power plants similiar to Dalhousie were successfully and easily converted to natural gas from oil and coal.

http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/27246/MIT-EL-86-009-18573189.pdf?sequence=1

And check out how much natural gas is right underneath the Dalhousie station. Probably wouldn't even need a pipeline. Petroliagaz even has the Dalhousie station marked on their drawings as a potential consumer.

http://www.petroliagaz.com/imports/pdf/en/Dalhousie-onepager_janv2009en.pdf

The Prize : A Giant gas feild.

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Quebec to implement rate hike

I had blogged about how the Quebec Government was going to implement a 1 cent per kw rate hike in Quebec. Notice I say government, because they can set the rate at whatever they want, regardless of what HQ wants to do.

Quebec just announced the rate hike. The amount is the same, but my timing was a little off. It starts in 2014 and is raised for four years, and then is tied to the inflation rate after 2018. So whatever deal Graham may have signed with Charest, it wouldn't have meant much after the five year freeze.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/todays-paper/Annual+hydro+bills+will+2018/2746454/story.html

So basically, the belle province with the unlimited free hydro power will see power rate hikes no different than the rest of the mortal world.

Check out this old article as well. http://www.sqwalk.com/blog2006/000864.html

"Harnessing electricity on the Romaine would be an expensive proposition, probably surpassing 9 cents per kwh."

It is also mentioned in the first article that " Power from Hydro-Québec developments built since 2000 is priced at about eight cents a kilowatt-hour."

And where do these guys get their information. AV Cell executives talking about a 20% rise in their power bill over the next 5 years. At the most, it was to be 3% for five years. So that will be about 16.5%. Anything to sell a paper I guess.


http://nbbusinessjournal.canadaeast.com/front/article/1007591
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Later Folks