Lew Edwardson wrote the following as a comment on the post Lack of transparency at BC Hydro may conceal massive fraud. It deserves to be repeated in this separate post. WARNING: this will not build confidence in elected officials and senior public servants.
Continue readingTag: BC Hydro
IN-SIGHTS: BC’s contractual obligations worth tens of billions of dollars
BC’s government seems determined to continue the present model for private power in the intended 2024 call for additional electricity. The difference in 2024 will be that large contracts for wind power will be issued. Government knows that citizens would not, and should not, tolerate privatization of the public utility.
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Efficiency of BC Hydro dams slowly dropping – Site C may produce 1/4 less than promised
Site C was conceived when output per MW of capacity was higher than it has been in recent years. BC Hydro has regularly claimed that 1,100 MW capacity at Site C will annually produce 5,100 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity. That would be 4.64 GWh per MW of capacity, almost
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Lack of transparency at BC Hydro may conceal massive fraud
Economist Dr. Jetson Leder-Luis of Boston University studies fraud in public spending. He estimates that fraud in large projects may divert five percent of spending. On the Site C power project, that suggests fraud worth hundred of millions of dollars might be involved.
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Will BC Hydro make another multi-billion dollar mistake?
BC Hydro is preparing a call for power and expects to award new contracts to independent power producers in 2025. The 500 MW Revelstoke 6 is deferred again, even though it could produce electricity for about $1.2 million per MW of capacity, which would be less than one-tenth the cost
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Negative power prices
A Bloomberg headline too consequential to ignore: European Power Prices Plunge Below Zero as Solar Output Booms. Had British Columbia committed to wind and solar power eight years ago, it could be experiencing the same low cost energy. . .
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Special interests dictated BC’s energy policy
For years, informed commentators without a partisan interest or a financial stake in construction of Site C argued for alternative energy projects. BC New Democrats and BC Hydro were disinterested in lower cost production of electricity generated close to where it is consumed. Many of us are certain we know
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Power alternatives
Public utility BC Hydro is now admitting that significant rate increases are coming because of Site C. Whatever happened to the “40 percent growth over 20 years” that BC Hydro had promised throughout a decade and a half of flat demand?
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Sweden has a public utility not stuck in the 1960s
I invite readers to look beyond a comparison of the noted energy projects to consider the long term objectives of two publicly owned energy companies. BC Hydro is focused on doing what it has done since the 1960s. Sweden’s Vattenfall is an innovator, creating permanent jobs and pursuing solutions to
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: A cunning plan
Gaining billions of dollars, with a promise of $50 billion more, by selling an unneeded product to a single customer for a multiple of market value ought to earn IPPs a featured place in the Canadian Business Hall of Fame.
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Troubling information from recent public disclosures
BC’s Auditor General says the 2022 surplus would be $6.5 billion higher if government followed Canadian Public Sector Accounting Standards. The surplus would have been $8 billion had government also eliminated fossil fuel subsidies.
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Screwed!
It may be too late to save the billions of dollars that will flow to private power producers because corrupt practices are not easily resolved in court. But it is not too late to punish political figures who originated or tolerated this grand scheme. They sit on both sides of
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Moronic public policy
The utility that for years could not estimate demand growth accurately and missed on the Site C cost estimate by 100% knew the future danger posed by rooftop solar panels . How are you going to expand a business empire if you allow ordinary people to interfere?
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Site C: stupidity or corruption?
In psychiatry, the word “delusion” means a firm belief in what others know to be false. Despite evidence of massive physical and financial risks, Liberals decided to green light Site C. Not wanting to be labeled anti-development, and having its own friends to reward, BC NDP chose to carry on…
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: BC Hydro and the illusory truth effect
Misinformation is common in our world. Sometimes it involves benign self-protection or ego boosting. Other times, humans use deception to gain advantages. Businesses and governments do it every day, by simple shading of the truth, egregious deceit, or something in between. With cooperation and assistance from government, BC Hydro relies
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Bad governance, disinterested corporate media
Political observers who expected BC NDP to live up to electoral promises of 2017 are by now thoroughly disillusioned. Broken promises could pave the the grounds of the BC Legislature…
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: BC Hydro: privatize and regulate strictly
As managed since 2001 under Premiers Campbell, Clark and Horgan, BC Hydro has been an unqualified disaster. The company has used falsehoods to justify capital spending of about $40 billion during a decade and a half of flat demand. Instead of managing BC Hydro for the benefit of citizens, political
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Curiouser and curiouser
sh writer Lewis Carroll wrote those words for Alice in 1865. Carroll, born Charles Dodgson, was also a church deacon and an Oxford trained mathematician. Were he a 21st century resident of British Columbia, Dodgson might be using that phrase about BC Hydro deals with SNC-Lavalin. …
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Sunk costs sinking
BC government is reluctant to reveal information about BC Hydro’s Site C project but news that does emerge is useful to knowledgeable analysts…
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Deceit and distraction
BC Hydro and government overseers have long claimed electricity demand is growing at a rate of 40% over 20 years. In fact, demand has not grown since 2005. What did grow was the average unit price consumers paid BC Hydro. That increased 115% in the 20 years from 2001 to
Continue reading