BC dropping gas-fired power plants

Utility wants to encourage greater use of ‘clean, reliable, electricity’; estimates 2 plants produce combined 350,000 mt of CO2

Gary Park

for Petroleum News

The British Columbia government has announced plans to phase out two natural gas-powered electricity plants as it focuses on hydroelectricity in pursuit of a greener grid.

Publicly owned BC Hydro said it will not renew a power-purchasing contract with one of the suppliers on Vancouver Island that is set to expire in 2022, while a separate deal with a larger utility in northeast British Columbia will be allowed to lapse by 2030.

An estimated 90% of the province’s power is already derived from renewable energy sources, dominated by hydroelectricity.

The utility said that “by encouraging customers to use clean and reliable electricity instead of higher emitting fuels to power their homes, vehicles and businesses BC Hydro can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to meeting the government’s climate goals.”

The contract that will be scrapped next year involves Capital Power Corp.’s Island Generation Plant which is already underutilized because it mostly kicks into action as a backup during times of peak electricity use.

BC Hydro estimates that unloading its 20-year purchasing agreement with Capital Power will cut the equivalent of 10,000 metric tons a year of CO2 emissions.

Capital Power said its plant has been “extremely reliable for BC Hydro with a 99 percent average availability over the last five years, providing critical back-up power and grid reliability for Vancouver Island and Metro Vancouver.”

The second plant targeted for phasing out is at Fort St. John and is co-owned by Brookfield Energy Partners and Energy Capital Partners.

BC Hydro said the McMahon cogeneration plant is the “biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions” on its network, emitting the equivalent of 340,000 metric tons a year of CO2.

Over the past 50 years, Canadian energy companies have promoted natural gas as a clean-burning fuel compared with facilities that rely on underground oil tanks, which pose the risk of oil seeping into the surrounding soil.

FortisBC, the largest distributor of natural gas to homes in B.C., argues that the road to achieving net zero emissions by 2050 must include a transition role for natural gas.

But climate activists have stepped up their arguments that as renewable energy sources grow and generate low-carbon electricity that case for natural gas diminishes.

However, the Ontario government, Canada’s most populous province at 15 million, said in June that it has selected 28 projects across 43 communities to expand the use of natural gas for home heating.