Site C Construction Underway
Fort St. John, B.C. – Construction activity for the Site C dam project will be more visible this week as work is underway to clear the north bank of the dam site.
Equipment is also being mobilized to clear and grade the area that will become the worker accommodation area. That work will continue through next week.
On the south bank of the Peace River, there will be some selective clearing done so there will be space to place materials that will be used during the dam construction.
Next week, clearing will continue on the North and South banks of the Peace with all timber being moved off site on public roads. There will be increased logging truck traffic in the region. There will also be some work within the Wuthrich Quarry.
Area residents are advised they may notice an increase in noise levels in the area, and some dust as construction activities move forward.
Comments
Is this just a feeler or are we serious that this dam will be built?
Cheers
It will be built and then hydro will be selling the power to the states and we will continue to see huge increases on our bill to pay for it.
No PVal we will use the power to provide free charging stations for electric cars
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Pval The increases to your bill have a lot to do with the 60 billion in contracts to IPP’s you seem to ignore that fact. Hydro has always sold power to the states nothing new there. What would you like them to do, just dump excess water.
Oh another thing Hydro was forced to pay off California because the IPP’s where afraid they would have been forced out of the California market. The IPP’s swing a lot of political clout.
IPP’s are non firm power and one of the reasons to build site c is back up to them.
What a sad story seamut. You ignored the question ,who will pay for the dam?
What I’m wondering about what about the legal hassle that is yet to come.
Cheers
Glad to see they’re starting the work!
I would like them to not illegally over charge the states at least.. How many tens of millions did the liberals get as a fine for doing that again? That is why they had pay California.. Excess water…that’s a stupid statement. Learn how the damns work with turbines etc..
We will still be paying for this to be built with increasing hydro bills and taxes… Guess you can’t grasp that concept.
So Pval are you a supporter of the 60 billion in contracts to IPP’s?
Not overcharged, the problem of generation shortage was brought on by California themselves and Hydro sold power on the open market.
Please educate on how the power system works, I can hardly wait.
How did other past power projects get financed, pixie dust.
So what would you do for added generation, keep it cheap like bulk hydro electric
Well that only took about 40 years to get this project underway. I would say the consultation period has ended.
“Excess water…that’s a stupid statement”
???? why ????
You do realize that when the reservoir fills up faster than they can release water via the turbines then they have to “dump” it without using it to generate electricity.
Even with IPPs we still have the cheapest electricity in Canada, depending how much one uses, next to Quebec and Manitoba using 2 year old figures.
Yes I know exactly how a damn generates electricity. How often do they use the spill ways now? ( that how they release excess water, very rare they have to do it except spring run off, on occasion they will open up the spill way due to maintenance etc.) . Also the turbines have variable pitch to generate the desired amount needed. If you want to know anything more I can give you a class on it..
The mentality of… “We still have the cheapest electricity” is exactly a politician would say just before they jack up the rates again. Also why does Quebec have such cheap electricity… Look it up.
1. I suppose we have the cheapest power if you do not factor in Hydro’s debt, which for all intents and purposes is our debt. The IPP’s have to sell their power to Hydro (with a few exceptions) so they have nothing to do with how the power is sold. Hydro actually pays some of these IPP’s to not produce power.
2. Power is sold to the US by Powerex, a subsidiary of BC Hydro. Powerex also sells all the Canadian power we get from the Columbia River agreements with the USA. So in effect we have access to Columbia Power but we sell it all to the USA for approx. $250 Million per year. If we took this power and used it in BC there would be no need for Site C, and probably IPP’s.
In any event the buying and selling of power by BC Hydro and Powerex is a shell game. We are importing and exporting power all the time. You would need a Philadelphia Lawyer to figure it all out.
3. Dumping water when the reservoir is full is just part of how power is generated. Surplus power is dumped to maintain the level needed to generate power, and has nothing to do with generating any surplus electricity,. The real problem would be if there was insufficient water, not a surplus.
4. BC Hydro could have taken California to court rather than pay them the money they claimed. The reason they did not, was because the court case might have indicated that BC Hydro was somehow aware of the what happening with power sales in California. If so this would have opened up a whole can of worms. So pay the money and move on.
Has the consultation on this project finished? Or is the government just showing its muscles?
That’s dam not damn. Anyhow hydro generators do not use variable pitch blades not in the Hydro system anyhow, wicket gates are used to control the volume of water into the Francis turbine controlling power output and frequency. Hydro also uses Pelton wheels
Quebec has cheap electricity because of hydro electric along with Manitoba, look it up. Want high rates then look to Ontario with its costly inefficient wind power.
1. Hydro is forced to buy IPP power at a rate higher than Hydro can generate it. A 60 billion dollar contractual debt.
2.Because the power was not immediately needed to serve
its demand, Canada sold the first 30 years of the Canadian
Entitlement to a U.S. consortium of utilities for $254 million
in 1964. The value of the Canadian Entitlement, combined
with pre-payment for flood risk management, helped finance
Duncan, Keenleyside and Mica dams. Now that the
30-year contracts have expired, the U.S. delivers the
Canadian Entitlement energy to BC Hydro over Bonneville
Power Administration transmission lines. BPA estimates
that this energy entitlement is worth between $250 million
and $350 million a year.
Powerex is a power trading company just like every major utility has. Using our easily dispatchable hydro electric power Powerex makes the province a lot of money.
3. Spilling happens when inflow is higher than generation output and reservoir levels have to be maintained within a range depending on weather predictions and generation restrictions do to maintenance, seasonal flow restrictions etc.
4. Hydro won in court and actually helped California out with a generation shortage of their own doing. It seems it was smarter to pay the money out so that there would be no restrictions to selling into California. That money has been paid back in power sales to the state.
Again none of you address the 60 billion dollar question but only fixate on the 8 billion. That 8 billion is an added cost to the 60 billion, to back up the 60 billion forced onto hydro by the government.
PVal, “I would like them to not illegally over charge the states at least.. How many tens of millions did the liberals get as a fine for doing that again? “. That was done under the watchful eyes of the NDP in 2000/2001.
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