WATCH: Critics of BC Hydro’s plans to shut down the thermal power plant in Port Moody are keeping up their fight to save it. Ted Chernecki reports.
Pressure is growing on BC Hydro to reverse its decision to close a Metro Vancouver power plant by next March.
Hydro says the 50-year-old Burrard Thermal plant in Port Moody is outdated and inefficient.
“If we were to keep it, it would cost significant amounts to upgrade it and it would remain an inefficient converter of gas into electricity,” says Chris O’Riley, BC Hydro Exec VP of Generation, “so it’s very unlikely to run even if we did reinvest in the plant.”
All the transformers and wires behind the power plant will continue to be used to help balance the grid. And with a new 500-kilovolt power line into the Lower Mainland almost complete, BC Hydro has yet another reason to decommission this station, saving the crown corporation $14 million a year in operating costs.
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But critics say Hydro should consider keeping the natural-gas fuelled plant open.
“Why take away something that you have in a growing area?” asks Port Moody Mayor Mike Clay.
“Why take that away and rely on your power to come from Revelstoke or Site C or even further away and have to come through all those potentially maintenance-prone power lines?”
O’Riley says the new lines will be more than able to serve Metro Vancouver.
“Once the new transmission line from the interior is in service, we’ll have five lines into the city from British Columbia,” counters O’Riley. “We’ll have two more 500 kv lines from the south. We can meet our peak loads on the coldest day of the year with four lines in service, so we do have a margin. We think that when you balance the costs against the risks, we think it’s the right decision.”
Port Moody will lose about $1.2 million a year in business taxes. BC Hydro is planning to keep the waterfront property, but it is already actively exploring redevelopment options.
-with files from Ted Chernecki
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