Links to articles that oppose the sale of NB Power to Hydro-Quebec

Here’s links to some articles around the Web that oppose the sale of NB Power to Hydro-Quebec:

Hydro Quebec deal is bad for NS and NL, but how good is it for NB? (The Contrarian)

Mactaquac Mac’s Power Blog (contains two posts looking at the cons of the sale)

Premier’s Sale of NB Power Sells Out NBers (Times Transcript)

New Brunswick – What Are You Doing? (Globe and Mail)

Uncle Sam says:  we want your power (The Other Side of Town)

The purpose of sharing these links is not to oppose the Memorandum of Understanding about the NB Power sale between Quebec and NB, just to show you a sample of one side of the story.

Links to articles that support the sale of NB Power to Hydro-Quebec

For your information, here’s a link to sites that support the sale of NB Power to Hydro-Quebec:

Power deal has both sides smiling (Montreal Gazette)

The bottom line?  We all save (Telegraph Journal)

NB Power sale gets environmentalists’ support (CBC)

NB Power goes to Quebec (Times-Transcript)

Sell NB Power – and study it (Telegraph Journal)

And, of course, the NB Government website about the sale

 

The purpose of publishing these links is not to support the Memorandum of Understanding to sell NB Power to Hydro-Quebec, merely to provide information.

 

Things to consider about the sale of NB Power

The more that you read about the planned sale of NB Power to Hydro-Quebec, the more questions come up that should be considered.  Most of them seem to have answers in the MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) document signed by the provinces of NB and Quebec, but I think that we need to examine each piece in order to make good decisions about the deal.

If you’re not sure about the deal, here’s a list of concerns and issues that you might want to consider:

 

Who are the stakeholders, the people who have something to gain or lose from the deal?

• The people of New Brunswick
• The communities that currently have NB Power assets (power generation, distribution, transmission, customer service)
• The premiers of New Brunswick and Quebec
• NB industrialists and other business owners/employees/customers/vendors
• Atomic Energy of Canada – the agency responsible for the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station refurbishment
• The management and staff of both NB Power and Hydro-Quebec
• The labour unions that represent NB Power employees
• The other Atlantic provinces (Nova Scotia, PEI, and Newfoundland and Labrador)
• Potential US based customers of Hydro-Quebec and NB Power

Here’s a list of factors to consider when you think about this deal:

• The outcome of the Point Lepreau refurbishment
• New Brunswick’s hydro power resources (for example, the Mactaquac Dam could be inoperable by 2015 due to structural integrity problems)
• The fate of the fossil fuel powered plants
• The impact on this deal on economic growth (for example, the current wording of the deal proposes a power usage cap which could become an issue if New Brunswick grows significantly in population size and power usage)
• The economics and politics of power generation, transmission, and distribution in NB:  how open will the market be?  Is that a good thing?
• What about natural gas in NB?
• Alternative energy sources (wind, solar, tidal(?)) – how will they be affected?
• What do we know about the primary source of Quebec power – their hydro dams?  What’s the long term viability of these power sources?  How much capital investment will be required to sustain them?  Are there any environmental considerations?  Will global climate change have any impact on them?
• The impact of the sale on New Brunswick’s finances:  reduction of debt; loss of tax revenue and NB Power revenues.
• The impact of the residential/commercial rate freezes and the temporary lowering of industrial power rates.
• Energy conservation, or lack thereof
• The impact of making another province responsible for meeting our power needs.
• The implications on our ability to sell power to other provinces/states/countries.
• The impact on self-sufficiency initiatives within NB

 

 

This is just a sample of the possible issues and concerns about the sale of NB Power to Hydro-Quebec.  Please feel free to share any if you feel they need to be discussed.   Thanks for reading!

 

Summary of NB Power Purchase Memorandum of Understanding

For your convenience, we’ve included a copy of the summary of the Memorandum of Agreement to sell NB Power to Hydro-Quebec.  You can find the actual PDF document here.  It came from the NB Government website about the sale of NB Power to Hydro-Quebec.  The full text of the Memorandum of Agreement can be found here.

Summary

Memorandum of understanding between the governments of Québec (QC) and New Brunswick (NB)

October 29, 2009

Assets of NB Power (NBP) acquired by Hydro-Québec (HQ)

• Distribution assets

• Transmission assets

• Generation assets

• Point Lepreau nuclear generating facility, once the refurbishment project has been completed, on or about January 1, 2011.

Consideration

• HQ commits to making two payments to NB totalling $4.75 billion; the first on or about March 31, 2010, and

the second on the closing date of the Point Lepreau transaction (expected on or about January 1, 2011).

Assets not acquired by Hydro-Québec

• NB retains ownership of the following assets and operates them for the benefit of HQ under the framework of tolling agreements* :

• Belledune generating facility (coal)
• Coleson Cove generating facility (oil), operated only during peak periods

»» HQ has the option to direct NB to shut down these facilities with one year’s prior notice and pay NB, if applicable, the equivalent of 12 months of fixed costs.

• NB retains the following assets, which are deemed surplus facilities. The schedule for the permanent closing of these facilities has yet to be determined by the parties:

• Grand Lake generating facility (coal). The closing of this facility was announced at the end of September 2009.
• Dalhousie generating facility (oil), whose phase out was announced on October 29, 2009, and Courtenay Bay generating facility (oil).

Supply of electricity to New Brunswick by Hydro-Québec

• HQ commits to providing up to 14 TWh of electricity to NB customers at rates established by the NB government (NB heritage pool supply):

• up to 4.5 TWh/year for industrial customers (“Industrial Heritage Pool”)
• up to 9.5 TWh/year for residential, commercial and wholesale customers (“RCW Heritage Pool”).

Electricity rates as of April 1, 2010 – for a period of five years

• Rates equivalent to those of Québec (rates L and M) for NB’s industrial customer base

• Rates frozen for five years (until March 31, 2015) for regular customers (RCW); the current average rate is close to 11¢ per kWh.

Price of Heritage Pool (Industrial and RCW) electricity established on March 31, 2015

• Mechanism agreed upon to establish the value of heritage pool electricity (Industrial and RCW Heritage Pools) as of March 31, 2015.

Electricity rates as of April 1, 2015

• Regulatory mechanisms agreed upon for rate adjustments beyond 2015.

Employees

• At the time of the closing of the transaction, HQ offers employment to all NBP employees and respects existing collective agreements.

Legal and regulatory framework for electricity in New Brunswick

• The NB government commits to establishing a legal and regulatory framework that reflects the framework

currently in effect in Quebec:

• The NB system operator is reintegrated into the activities of the transmission provider in NB
• Transmission and distribution rates are regulated on a cost basis
• Energy requirements beyond the electricity heritage pools are met according to market conditions.
• Access to the transmission system is open and non-discriminatory.

Closing of the transaction

• Schedule

• On or about March 31, 2010
• On or about January 1, 2011 for Point Lepreau

• Closing conditions for the Point Lepreau transaction:

• Full completion of the refurbishment project now under way
• The restart of the facilities following successful testing
• The issuance of the necessary permits and authorizations prior to the restart and acquisition of the facility.

*  Tolling agreement: An agreement by which a party agrees to provide the fuel for the operation of a generating facility owned by another party, thereby acquiring the exclusive rights to determine and purchase the related energy production. Such an agreement includes provisions to cover fixed operating costs.

The purpose of this blog is to inform New Brunswickers

Welcome.  The purpose of this blog is to provide links to information, thoughts, and opinions about the proposed sale of NB Power to Hydro-Quebec.  The goal of creating this blog is to provide the citizens of New Brunswick with an information resource to supplement any other sources provided by the governments of New Brunswick and Quebec.

It was created as a means to help spread information about the proposed sale of NB Power to Hydro-Quebec so that we can all be better informed.  Some people might call this blog a form of citizen journalism.

We will do our best to provide truthful, factual information about this proposed sale and its impact on the citizens of New Brunswick.

In this initial post, we are linking to a new website, Lower Rates for New Brunswickers, which appears to have been created by the Government of New Brunswick to provide information to the public about the proposed sale of NB Power to Hydro-Quebec.  We encourage everyone to read through the information on that website.