At the Town Hall meeting in Calgary on Sept. 24, 2009, Gary Holden, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Enmax Corporation, informed the public that the extensive transmission project proposed by the Progressive Conservative Government of Alberta would affect all four quadrants of the province. When all is said and done, this project will cost the taxpayers of Alberta 20 billion dollars and according to Holden is “the single biggest assignment of wealth to corporations in Alberta history, biggest in the electricity business and on monopoly assets.”
Briefly, the legislation of Bill 50 will strip the authority of an independent panel to hear the opinions, concerns and queries of Albertans regarding infrastructure changes that will be made in their communities. It takes away their right to voice their concerns by having a public hearing before the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC). Instead, Bill 50 allows a shift in authority from the (AUC) to the Government of Alberta. This wipes out a one hundred year-old law where the independent regulatory board had the only authority to approve utility projects based on the counsel of engineers and experts.
Alberta is built on solid principles where corporate utility companies and municipal utilities, are able to coexist in harmony while taking care of their customers’ needs. The purpose of a strong regulator in the past was to keep the “scoundrels” out which brought prudence and discipline to all who chose to do business in the energy sector. The regulator’s presence forced the utility groups that pitched projects to have a conscience so that their actions would be in the best interests of Albertans. This lack of protection now and the implementation of Bill 50 will alter the scenario.
Bill 50 will change the quality of life for Albertans
The quality of life Albertans have enjoyed by having low cost efficient systems for power, water and sewers will also change with Bill 50. There will be a “trickle down effect” from this venture, as both rural and urban Albertans will feel the repercussions of having this project unfairly imposed upon them.
Not only does Bill 50 strip Alberta landowners of their rights to protest against having power lines installed without their consent, it will devalue their land. The government currently neglects to account for the true costs of land devaluation. The proposed massive transmission lines would significantly decrease the value of lands surrounding the routes. Yet, current policy and legislation considers only those lands falling within the right-of-ways, and not those lands surrounding the project, but impacted nonetheless. It is incomprehensible that a government-sponsored project that is paid for by consumers is being built on the backs of thousands of affected landowners.
Bill 50 will spell disaster for independent business owners, small, medium and even large companies who operate businesses in Alberta, as their electricity bills will double or triple. It may cause industrial companies in this province who employ thousands of people to lose their competitive edge with other countries thereby forcing them to close their doors.
Another factor that will undoubtedly affect the health of Albertans is the toxic effects from electromagnetic fields produced by the electricity lines. This amount of voltage blanketing the province will surely have an invisible detrimental effect on the people and this pristine province. It will especially be toxic for the landowners who have transmission lines on or near their property.
There is already unrest at these hearings as they decide where the transmission lines go. “The fact that no one is hearing the opposition to the cost is deeply troubling,” admitted Holden. To add fuel to the fire, Bill 50 lists projects and assigns them to companies. This has never happened before. “What this means is that 8 billion dollars of consumer paid projects will enable the shareholders of these privileged companies on the list to become very wealthy at the consumers’ expense. Bill 50 was presented just in time to give the shareholders of these companies the opportunity to become rich,” explained Holden.
The technical framework of the transmission project and Bill 50
The technical framework of this massive transmission project involves two sets of parallel high voltage lines (500 kV AC and 500 kV DC) traversing our province from our northern to our southern boundary. There will be an additional 1-240 kV HV AC line included and lateral lines that will be approximately 6 billion dollars. It is rumored that the covert purpose of this huge project is to export energy to the United States. The primary focus is not about helping Albertans who are paying the huge bill.
Also, building a nuclear power plant in conjunction with Bruce Power in the Peace River area is another reason these transmission lines are going up. If this nuclear plant is built near Peace River, accidental nuclear leaks are possible. The Northern Alberta oil sands region, just east of where this future nuclear plant will be built, already has toxic waste in the land, surface water and aquifers. Currently, there is no long-term method of safely storing nuclear waste. Given our existing resources and the contamination already present, one must question if we really need to open this Pandora’s box.
To put this project and its cost into perspective, the current transmission grid is valued at 2 billion dollars for the whole system in Alberta. That’s why the 20 billion dollar tab doesn’t make sense. “They could build 3 plants a year with this kind of money which is equal to an 18% tax rate on your personal income taxes,” explained Holden.
Around 2006, the Edmonton-Calgary 500 kV project that was supposed to be pushed through regulation was not approved. “Then Bill 19 was invented and is ‘great’ because if you ever have any trouble with landowners, you just take the land. This is the same year that the environmental process for transmission was removed from the requirement process. Then Bill 50 came along with 8 billion dollars worth of listed projects and just in case they weren’t sure they could justify it, they took the regulator away. Then ‘Enmax opened its big mouth,’” Holden admitted. They broke the news of this project to the public out of respect for their customers.
The regulator must be reinstated in Alberta
Presently, the 4 power plants being built in the Calgary area are: the Balzac plant at 300 megawatts; the Crossfield plant; the downtown plant; and the 800 megawatt plant in east Calgary. The city can be supplied with these 4 assets; it’s that simple.
Though Alberta was built on coal, they are not serious about implementing green alternative energy. Clean coal only works when the gas is sustainable at the price of 16 dollars per gigajoule. According to Holden, they spent 2 billion dollars on carbon sequestration. “Where is the 2 billion dollars for solar power? [Coal] is more expensive. It uses 2 times the energy; it produces 3 times the CO2; it uses 5 times the water; it makes mercury a million times more than the gas plant because the gas plant doesn’t have any and it’s 2.5 – 3 times the capital. Why are we building a provincial energy strategy around coal? It makes no sense.”
The regulator needs to be put back in place to restore the rights of all Albertans. “If we come up with a new policy on transmission, we must give the regulator even more power to consider the need beyond what is written today, not take them away,” concluded Holden.
The province of Alberta was built on these values: grit, determination, humility, hard work and pride in ownership. However, this situation is reminiscent of past centuries when power grabs by Feudal Land System owners forced their agendas upon their “subjects” through an unfair process. Bill 50 will presumably be passed in the immediate future. If Albertans let Bill 50 pass without a fight, then there will be a bigger battle in the future when other cherished liberties are taken away.
Some informative links are below. If you have trouble viewing these website links after clicking on them, then cut and paste the highlighted URL into your browser http field.
http://www.enmax.com/Corporation/Bill50/default.htm
The Canada-Northwest-California Transmissions Option Study?This Study shows options for how power will be funneled through Alberta.
http://www.nwpp.org/ntac/pdf/CNC%20Report%20-%20Final%2016%20May%202006.pdf
The Alberta Energy website shows “potential critical transmission” and “potential future critical transmission.
http://www.energy.gov.ab.ca/Electricity/pdfs/CTI_map_wLogo.pdf
The TransCanada Northern Lights Export Project
http://www.transcanada.com/company/northernlights.html
The TransCanada Chinook and Zepher Export Projects
http://www.transcanada.com/company/zephyr_chinook.html
Canada-US Energy Corridor Idea Promoted (Jason Fekete, Canwest News Service, June 15, 2009)
http://www2.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=3711de86-0fa2-4f98-9cd2-3b6094268282
Comments
20 billion dollars, if divided equally between tax paying Albertans, amounts to how much per person?
The PC government has not proposed any transmission facility project. I would like Grace Visconti to clarify the project build-out boundaries that totals $20 Billion. Bill C50 is in place to keep the lights on and the factories running in Alberta. The line overloads and blackouts need to be corrected. Every year around $240 million dollars of energy is lost because Alberta's transmission grid can't efficiently transport energy anymore. I'm tired of Enmax incorrectly leading the media and the general public especially without backing up their accusations with real line items including real dollar values. I have only heard them spout off $20 Billion over and over without merit. Is the public aware that Enmax just increased their rate overnight by 25%?
Today all provincial interties supply Alberta with power, historically Alberta pays top dollar for energy. Without necessary transmission new generators can't connect, AB is a failed market and the public is paying for it.
FYI it is the AESO (our system operator) that is a regulated body that demonstraits the necessity for the transmission build-outs. It's sad when no transmission upgrades have been done for 20 years and now when it's necessary to do so the costs of transmission have increased over time. If the upgrades between Calgary and Edmonton were completed when they were originally proposed the province would have saved huge. The cost of transmission has increased over time and in the end Alberta will have no choice but to accept and construct, now or wait until the costs increase even more so.
That is quite a jump from 2 billion to 20 billion don’t you think? I find it hard to believe that a jump like this is warranted. That’s 18 BILLION dollars! I would like an independent expert to join in on this discussion - opposing sides would be lively and interesting.
Here is a quote from the Town Hall meeting with Gary Holden. You can hear this on their video:
“What is Bill C50?
Bill 50 removes the Regulator as a mediator between the people and the power companies. It takes away the tension from companies that make the profit, almost like taking away the conscience behind their actions as well. It takes the transparency and the need to do the right thing out of the equation. The lack of discipline due to the removal of the Regulator, will lead to lackluster responsibility.”
“The Alberta Utilities Commission (The Alberta Utilities Commission is responsible for the distribution and sale of electricity and natural gas to Alberta consumers. The commission is also responsible for applications regarding new or upgraded electricity transmission lines) is intentionally disenfranchised with Bill 50. Just by taking the Alberta Utilities Commission out of the equation, won’t make it any easier.”
Why would Enmax represent themselves or go to the trouble of having a Town Hall meeting in the first place to inform the public? A 25% is hardly 18 BILLION dollars divided by all Albertans.
To Mr. Educated:
(1) What blackouts? (2) Provincial line losses are well within North American standards (less, actually). (3) Misleading information & rhetoric comes mostly from Bill 50 proponents (gov't, tansmission giants, AESO), all of whom don't pay the cost, nor share the risk. (4) The $20 billion is based on the AESO estimates of $16.5 billion, with expected costs of tie-ins, and expected cost overruns (unless this will be the first gov't project to come in on budget . . .)(5) Alberta's system is inherently flawed due to AESO's gov't-prescribed mandate that limits its scope to solve all problems by soley constructing tranmsission. No other grid operator in the world does it this way,simply because it is so foolish.
Dear Mr. Educated: (1) The grid is constantly being upgraded and maintained (we paid for it on our bills). AESO figures show over $1 billion was spent in the last 5 years to upgrade, operate and maintain our grid. (2) Ever consider that $20 billion is a lot because their plan is overdesigned? (3)The grid is being planned to accommodate roughly double of our current demand (which we MAY see in 20 to 40 years). That's like my 5 year old having me buy a car today IN CASE he gets married in 10 or 15 years, and his spouse may need a car (if and when she gets a job). Planning is fine, but please don't wildly speculate on my dime. (4) Anyone who thiiks that the costs end here is deluded - it will only get worse from here, maybe exponentially.
Why aren’t they looking into solar power? Is it too simple or perhaps it doesn’t bring in the money that will line the pockets of power companies? Even Gary Holden alludes to this and questions why the money was not spent on solar instead of coal which he says is NOT cheap. What is your take on it Educated? Just curious.
Educated it is undeniable that with the prices being jacked up due to this $20 BILLION bill, it will cripple if not wipe out homeowners and businesses.
Quote of the Day: Somewhere sandwiched in between 2 opposing views there lies the truth!:-)
Correction to the statement below: Why would Enmax misrepresent themselves and mislead the public and risk their reputation. That’s probably why they had a Town Hall meeting to reveal their stance and inform the public of what was going on.
It seems that regulatory bodies tend to serve their purpose and remain in place until someone(s) with more $$ or influence than us peasants decide they really want something...then they just take it lol.
Yeah well what they fail to understand is that without us “peasants” they have no one to rule or enslave. LOL It’s a catch 22. Never underestimate peasants.
Building smaller gas-powered power plants and expanding truly green energy solutions like wind, solar, geothermal and biogas generation near our cities and industrial sectors will negate the need for most of this outrageous transmission system overbuild. Unless it is our intention to sell power to the Americans from the proposed nuclear power plant in Peace River, that is.
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