New Media
Site C: 10 things you need to know about the dam’s latest review now that B.C. is forging ahead
But U.S. energy economist Robert McCullough told The Narwhal that the government pulled the 10-year figure out of thin air.
McCullough said there’s no requirement — in B.C., or anywhere else in North America — for the money to be recovered over one decade.
Texas power grid president and CEO fired for winter storm outages
“When the person in charge says, ‘Oh, by the way, you need to winterize your pipes,’ you
should actually do that,” energy expert Robert McCullough said. “The word stupid comes
to mind.”
New Articles
FERC’s MOPR Dissected
Public Utilities Fortnightly, Robert McCullough
The two leading renewable technologies are non-dispatchable intermittent resources. The unsubstantiated assumption that they will lower the value of capacity needs to be examined closely.
Why have PJM capacity markets decoupled from actual capacity bids?
The Electricity Journal, Robert McCullough
We analyze PJM’s Reliability Pricing Model auction in the context of ongoing reform proposals that seek to address the perception that state subsidies for carbon free generation are depressing capacity prices.
Oregon natural gas facility could be fuelled by Canadian sources
The Lawyer’s Daily, Robert McCullough
Jordan Cove is planned for Coos Bay. In order to procure natural gas, a pipeline is planned to connect to supplies at Malin, Ore. Malin connects to Kingsgate, Alta., and Opal, Wyo. Overall, Coos Bay is over 909 miles from sources of supply in the east and 841 miles from Alberta.
New Reports
Reassessment of Site-C Financial Viability – March 21, 2021
Some main points from this edition:
1. After scaling back in March, the cost overrun was 26%. Apparently the staff were sent home with quite an Easter basket last year.
2. Some pretty massive contract renegotiations took place last year about $516 million.
3. It seems like BC Hydro has quietly dropped their interest rate hedge — or at least put it on hold. If so, they may have locked in the $1 billion dollar loss before the recovery of long term interest rates this spring.
4. The author of the report seems uncertain about the scale of the contingency and reserve amounts — usually a large part of the total budget.
The Emerging Role of Biomass as a Tool in Addressing Wildfire Risks
Reassessment of Site C Financial Viability
After fourteen months of study, Premier Horgan released a number of brief studies sup-porting a decision to go ahead with Site C based on a budget of C$16 billion. Unfortu-nately, this brings Site C to the most expensive – both in terms of gross costs and costs per megawatt-hour of the three troubled projects currently underway in Canada — outpacing the Keeyask project in Manitoba and the Muskrat Falls project in Newfoundland in both delay and cost.