Utility burning oil, coal at more than double the rate planned, new information shows

N.B. Power has been touting its record of reducing carbon emissions, but new information shows the utility is burning oil, coal and petroleum coke at more than double the rate it planned on this year and is on track to release more than four million tonnes of greenhouse gases for the first time in over a decade.

That would be 1.5 million tonnes more than last year, and it appears to contradict corporate messaging that has been highlighting its commitment to reducing emissions.

"Over the past two decades we have not only achieved but in many instances exceeded reduction targets established in various greenhouse gas emission frameworks," the utility wrote in its latest annual report released just this summer.  

"Today, we are emitting 75 per cent less carbon than we were in 2001…. We will continue to work with New Brunswickers to be a leader in reducing our environmental footprint."

But in documents filed with the Energy and Utilities Board last week as part of its application for an 8.9 per cent rate increase, N.B. Power revealed its carbon emissions are headed up this year, not down, and by a significant amount.

The increase is caused mostly by the utility's elevated use of its giant oil-burning generating station at Coleson Cove in Saint John that has been semi-idle for most of the last decade.   

According to filings with the EUB, the 972 megawatt Coleson Cove complex is projected to produce 1.55 million megawatt hours of electricity in the current fiscal year, which began on April 1. That's more than double last year's output and six times what the plant generated two years ago.

Burning that much oil comes with an environmental cost, including about 1.2 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. The plant had not exceeded one million tonnes of emissions in the previous 14 years.

In an email, the utility said the increased burning of oil to generate electricity was necessitated by a unique set of problems and failures at other New Brunswick generators and unusual spikes in world commodity prices.  

"Emission values vary year to year based on system conditions and commodity and market price variations, but overall point to a downward direction," said N.B. Power spokesperson Dominique Couture in an email.

"NB Power is committed to achieving a net-zero electricity system by 2035."

For four months this spring and summer, N.B. Power was without electricity from the Point Lepreau nuclear generating station, the Bayside natural gas generating station and the Kent Hills wind farm, New Brunswick's largest. All were undergoing significant maintenance or repairs at the same time.

In addition, natural gas price increases that hit generating stations in New England made Coleson Cove's oil generators a competitive exporter, driving up its output further.

According to Couture, about half of the generation at Coleson Cove this year is replacing power normally provided by the other generating facilities that have been offline, and about half is being generated to sell outside of New Brunswick.

In its rate application, N.B. Power says it expects "increased electricity market export prices" will make the use of Coleson Cove cost effective for exporting power into 2024.

That doesn't sit well with Louise Comeau, the director of climate change and energy solutions at the Conservation Council of New Brunswick.  

Comeau said N.B. Power has committed to reducing emissions, but has generating plans that include making more than five million megawatt hours of electricity from burning fossil fuels, both this year and next — significantly more than in recent years.

"The plan includes ramping up our reliance on coal, oil and gas to power Belledune, Coleson Cove and Bayside, while reducing greenhouse gases," said Comeau.   

"The math doesn't add up." 

So far carbon costs have not been a significant problem for N.B. Power at Coleson Cove, as it operates under New Brunswick's less stringent output-based pricing system. On 1.55 million megawatts of production at the plant, New Brunswick carbon pricing rules for industry will exempt 1.2 million tonnes of greenhouse emissions from tax, the vast majority of the emissions produced.