Proposed gas plant hearings underway in Moncton

A hearing on a potential gas plant near Sackville, N.B., started on Monday.

Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) hearings on the proposed natural gas-fired generation plant in Centre Village are underway this week in Moncton, one week after NB Power added new evidence that would increase the capacity of the project from 400 to 500 megawatts.

The Renewables Integration Grid Security – known as the RIGS project – is an electricity grid support facility NB Power has touted as necessary to secure the province’s energy future.

It would be built and operated by American company ProEnergy and NB Power would pay for the power over a 25-year agreement.

According to documents filed by NB Power, the utility has signed a 10-year deal with Nova Scotia’s Independent Energy System Operator (IESO) to cost-share the project and allow its neighbour up to 100 megawatts of power.

In a release by IESO, it states that of the 10 turbines, two would be “allocated” to generate 100 megawatts for Nova Scotia.

The EUB board decided Friday to allow the new evidence.

The hearings, scheduled to last all week, have been highly anticipated by NB Power and several interveners opposing the project.

On Monday, utility chief commercial officer Brad Coady acknowledged NB Power was concerned about the timeline of approval, referring to ProEnergy’s spring deadline to achieve regulatory approvals.

The NB Power team of executives were asked whether they seriously considered other options, like battery storage and wind capacity, before turning to combustion turbines to address future energy shortfalls.

“We were looking at one project to address this, not trying to do seven or eight small things at the same time,” responded Darren Clark.

The team did acknowledge the cost of battery storage is decreasing and it’s something they’ll be considering in the future.

Coady confirmed the RIGS project is “a big part of our plan” but not the only part.

The team was also asked about the agreement it has with ProEnergy and some of the financial aspects.

Coady reiterated NB Power is not the owner of the project, so they don’t know the exact cost to build. But he confirmed an estimate has the project at more than $1 billion.

He was then asked how much it will cost NB Power to pay for the power over the 25-year agreement. While there was a back-and-forth as to whether that information could be made public, Coady did confirm if the cost to build the project will be in excess of $1 billion, the cost to the utility will be more.

“If it’s a billion dollars worth of capital cost - trying to be helpful here with a complete answer - we would also have to cover the proponent’s operation and maintenance, the cost of financing the project, including return on equity and return on debt for that plus any insurances,” he said.

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