Don't count on Quebec grid capacity, N.L. Hydro advised
Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro should not assume there will be enough room on Quebec's power grid to handle energy generated from the proposed Lower Churchill megaproject, an analyst says.
Hydro has begun work on an environmental impact statement on building two sites on the Churchill River. However, it does not yet have a route by which it can deliver that power— possibly enough to power 1.5 million homes— to market.
Philip Raphals, executive director of the Helios Centre, a non-profit research organization in Montreal, said shipping the power over Hydro-Québec's grid may not be possible.
"The capacity is quite limited," Raphals told CBC News.
"It's pretty unlikely that there would be much— if not any— capacity left over in the system without new construction."
Quebec has been aggressively moving on its own energy plans. Earlier this month, construction began on a $5-billion project that will include diversion of the Rupert River.
There are also two megaprojects on the horizonfor Quebec's Lower North Shore, as well as plans to build a much stronger transmission link to Ontario.
The Newfoundland and Labrador government is not assuming it will be able to carry Lower Churchill power to market across Quebec, with which it has had a long and contentious history.
Under the terms of the Upper Churchill project, Newfoundland and Labrador's share of revenues have been declining, while Quebec has been able to sell energy from the Labrador plant at healthy profits.
N.L. considers underwater transmission line
Newfoundland and Labrador is seriously considering alternatives to moving power across Quebec to market, particularly building a separate transmission line that would, in part, go underwater before continuing across Atlantic Canada.
Kathy Dunderdale, Newfoundland and Labrador's natural resources minister, is optimistic the Lower Churchill plan can proceed, because both Ontario and the northeastern United States have energy demands that have been pegged to increase over the next 15 years.
"There's a huge market out there," she said.
"The Lower Churchill is a world class project. We are going to move steadily and strategically along, and that project can compete with anything that's on the radar," she said.