Communities in the BC northeast say that the province and BC Hydro need to deliver more benefits from the C site Da now than the megaproject of $ 16 billion can produce more electricity than was projected.
The recently commissioned dam may generate up to 1,230 megawatts at maximum capacity, approximately 130 megawatts more than the 1,100 originally approved in 2014.
That is enough to feed approximately 52,000 houses more than the initial estimates, or more than half of the expected energy needs of the CEDDAR GNL project proposed in Kitimat.
“If the benefit of site C, in terms of its ability to produce income, increases, then the impact for us and the recognition of that impact must also be incorporated,” said Hudson Mayor Travous Quibell.
The increase was discovered when BC Hydro tested the six mass turbines on site C, built in Brazil and hired online during the last year on the Peace River on the outskirts of Fort St. John. The last unit came into operation in August, months earlier than expected, while provincial regulators silently modified the environmental certification of site C this spring to recognize its greater production.
“As you enter the commissioning process, you discover what you really have,” said BC Hydro spokesman Greg Alexis. “It does not mean that site C is generated to that maximum capacity all the time.
“Rather, what it does is give us the ability to put more electricity in our system at the time when we need it most, which are generally those colder and more dark days of the year.”
Call for more benefits
Site C began to generate energy in October 2024 and is now completely operational after decades of delays, demands and excesses of costs.
It is the largest public infrastructure project in the history of BC, which supplies about eight percent of the province’s electricity. BC Hydro says that he will meet the growing demand for housing, population growth and industrial projects.
Elected leaders in the La Paz region argue that a greater generation capacity on site C should return a majority of the benefits to local communities.
This impulse was formalized in March, when Quibell introduced a unanimous motion at a meeting of the Regional District of Peace River (PRRD), asked the BC Environmental Evaluation Office to require greater payments of benefits as a condition to modify the certification of site C.
“This is simply a wink to the fact that the environmental evaluation process captures not only environmental impacts, but also socio -economic,” said Quibell.
After almost a decade of construction, the massive dam on site C is finally generating electricity. But the debate about the megaproject is far from finishing. While it is intended to feed thousands of houses and electric cars, what is the real cost and who can win? Camille Vernet reports.
The PRRD signed an agreement with BC Hydro in 2013 to receive $ 2.4 million a year until 2094, indexed to inflation, once the dam was operational. The money is divided between its seven member municipalities and four uncompassed rural areas based on population and project impacts.
In the full first year, the PRRD will receive approximately $ 500,000. The two largest communities in the region, Fort St. John and Dawson Creek, will receive around $ 830,000 and $ 312,000, respectively.
“It is a great benefit. It is guaranteed that the money arrives during the next 70 years,” said PRRD Board President Leonard Hiebert. “With that money that enters, we can consider not having to increase taxes for certain services.”
Hiebert says the regional district plans to use its part of benefits for priorities such as solid waste, parks and connectivity.
However, the dam has brought permanent losses, including 55 square kilometers of farmland now flooded by the reservoir, while the communities have faced other challenges, Hiebert said.
In the hope of Hudson, there have been continuous problems and uncertainty with drinking water related to the construction of the dam. And the questions persist in the future of the massive work field that still houses a few hundred workers.
“It is positive that they are producing more than projected, but there are all the impacts on the construction for which we have passed,” said Hiebert. “That little extra money that we would get with that greatest power … [would] He returns to the region to help our residents as a whole. “
Hydro, the province reject requests
But both BC Hydro and EAO have rejected the prrd’s request.
The Public Services Company says that it has implemented more than $ 100 million in mitigation and community benefits to date, including an agricultural trustee of $ 20 million and more than $ 1 million for non -profit organizations.
In a letter to the Regional District, the EAO said that legally binding conditions in the project do not require financial compensation to local governments, although BC Hydro has to compensate for impacts on cultivation lands, fishing, wildlife and wetlands.
“The financing formula as part of [the 2013 agreement] It is not linked to anything to do with the capacity of site C, so the terms of the agreement will not change, “said Alexis.
Pressure on the province
Hiebert says that the Regional District will continue to press to obtain more compensation, even in the Union of the BC Municipalities Convention this fall.
Provincial ministers need to see the development scale and first -hand impacts, he said.
“If we can get the ministers, even if they come as a complete contingent, just take a couple of days to see how vast that is and everything that is happening in our region, I think they would have a better understanding of why our requests are as they are,” he said.
The early editionAs BC faces an increase in energy demand, will the C site dam generate enough energy to meet the needs of the province?
We listen to CBC National Reporter, Lyndsay Duncombe.
