With the signing of a new contract, the Sechelt Creek Hydro Project will be supplying energy to BC Hydro for the next 40 years.
The 16-megawatt run-of-river hydro facility, located 20 km northeast of Sechelt, is jointly operated by shíshálh Nation and Toronto-based investment firm Capstone Infrastructure Corporation. The agreement will expire March 1, 2058.
“This is an incredibly important project for British Columbia. It demonstrates all that’s good and achievable from these smaller scale run-of-river facilities,” said David Eva, chief executive officer of Capstone, adding the project contributes more than $1 million annually to the provincial and local economy.
BC Hydro did not disclose the rate it will pay for the electricity. “The prices that we pay under specific contracts are commercially sensitive information and covered by confidentiality obligations within the Electricity Purchase Agreement,” said Susie Rieder, senior media relations advisor at BC Hydro.
Eva said the agreement still needs to be ratified by the British Columbia Utilities Commission, which will require BC Hydro to make the case for why the new EPA is cost-effective. “We certainly believe we have provided a project that provides great value, both in terms of cost, price stability and ongoing environmental and socioeconomic benefits,” Eva said.
The purchase agreement comes at a time when BC Hydro has stated it has no plans to issue any additional purchase agreements to independent power projects (IPPs) until the provincial government completes an operational review of Hydro, after it was determined the corporation can’t afford the year-long rate freeze the NDP promised during the election.
However, the Crown corporation is proceeding with negotiations for five new small-scale clean-energy projects with First Nations in the province, not including the Sechelt Creek Hydro Project, which counts as a renewal.
Proponents of small-scale IPPs say they are less intrusive than large-scale hydroelectric dams. Unlike conventional hydro plants, run-of-river facilities do not have reservoirs, and are considered more environmentally friendly. Opponents say IPPs are redundant and purchase agreement rates are too expensive.
“We’re in the Lower Mainland where the power is actually needed,” said Eva in defence of IPPs. “You’re not transmitting it hundreds and hundreds of kilometres and incurring all kinds of losses.”
In 2005, the International Hydro Association gave the Sechelt Creek project a Blue Planet Award for Environmental Excellence. In 2013 it earned an award for Environmental Stewardship and Community Improvement from Clean Energy BC, a clean energy industry association.
“Although shíshálh Nation is a leader in business engagement, we hold the environmental health of our territory paramount, and that includes important resources like a flourishing salmon population,” shíshálh Nation Chief Warren Paull said in a press release.
The project boasts an enhanced salmon spawning channel, which was devised by shíshálh elders to protect the salmon run. In 2013, a record 20,000 pink salmon returned.
The $30-million Sechelt Creek Hydro Project has been operating in Sechelt Creek, which flows into Salmon Inlet, since 1997 and can supply up to 9,000 homes with energy annually.
In 2017, shíshálh Nation and Capstone entered into a Facility Agreement to own and operate the independent power project (IPP). According to a press release, the formal partnership “gives effect to shíshálh’s indigenous rights and title in view of the facility’s ongoing operation in their territory, enshrines collaborative decision-making and governance, and will result in equity ownership and profit sharing for the project.”
