A Conservative government would open BC to thermal energy

BC’s Conservative government would avoid costly energy transmission investments by allowing communities in northwestern British Columbia to generate power locally from natural gas and wood waste, the BC Conservative Party argues in its latest energy election platform.

Although thermal energy from wood waste can be considered renewable, generating energy from natural gas turbines may require changes to laws such as CleanBC and the Clean Energy Act, depending on the amount of energy produced and the amount of natural gas consumed.

Communities like Kitimat, Terrace, Smithers and Prince Rupert are struggling with rising energy costs, BC Conservative Leader John Rustad said in a news release.

As part of the $36 billion in investments that BC Hydro plans to make over 10 years in transmission and distribution, $3.5 billion has been earmarked for expanding high-voltage transmission lines between Prince George and Terrace to bring more hydropower to the Northwest .

A cheaper alternative would be to enable local thermal energy generation using wood waste and/or natural gas, Rustad said.

“The solution is to increase local energy production in the Northwest to reduce costs and increase energy security,” Rustad said. “This is not about building expensive power lines out of the Northeast that would raise costs for BC Hydro customers across the province.”

“Taxpayers don’t have to spend more on David Eby’s NDP’s next lame-duck project of unnecessary power lines from the Northeast. Instead, we will generate energy locally and save Britons millions in energy costs.”

Clean Energy Canada Program Manager Evan Pivnick notes that the government of British Columbia only recently amended the Clean Energy Act to change British Columbia’s renewable electricity targets, so Rustad’s plan to allow power generation from natural gas may require repealing recent amendments.

A small amount of power generated from natural gas is permitted in British Columbia under the Clean Energy Act

“There is a very small amount of natural gas in the BC grid,” Pivnick told BIV News.

Pivnick noted that Vancouver Island has one natural gas thermal power plant and one natural gas thermal power plant.

Just this year, the Clean Energy Act required 93 per cent of the energy generated in British Columbia to come from renewable sources. However, in February, the British Columbia government announced that this target would be moved to 100% by 2030, which would exclude any new energy sources from non-renewable sources such as natural gas.

Therefore, to enable thermal energy generation from natural gas, the Clean Energy Act may need to be amended again to remove the new 100% target.

Barry Penner, chair of the Energy Futures Initiative, believes the Conservatives’ plan is sound because B.C. may need thermal power, if only as a backup during periods of drought when hydropower production declines.

He said the downturn in the forestry sector and the closure of sawmills means there is less wood waste available, so biomass energy may not be very reliable. On the other hand, it would be natural gas energy.

“Natural gas probably has more potential in the short term to be economically viable and reliable,” Penner said.

“Yes, it would be necessary to make changes to our Energy Act to allow more thermal energy to be produced, but as we have seen, BC Hydro consumes more thermal energy (electricity). Even this summer was a natural gas power plant in Vancouver The island will be basically full in July and August. Under the CleanBC plan, this option will not be considered.”

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