Energy Superminister Pierre Fitzgibbon and Hydro-Quebec agree that it would be “unrealistic” to provide an additional 23,000 megawatts (MW) to meet business power demand. Barely half of the projects on their list will see the light of day.
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Going through a parliamentary committee as part of Bill 2 on the capping of electricity rates, Hydro-Québec confirmed that the supply requests made to it (23 MW) would require the construction of 13 complexes like the one on the Roman River.
“Of course, such a scenario is unrealistic. Technical, economic and social constraints mean that it will not be possible to supply only a fraction of the requests received,” explained the vice-president of planning for Hydro-Québec’s energy needs, Dave Rhéaume.
Choices will therefore have to be made. Once Bill 2 is passed, Hydro-Québec will no longer be required to serve any demand below 50 MW. With the proposed legislative amendments, the government will grant itself the power of life or death for projects of more than 5 MW, according to certain criteria such as economic spinoffs and environmental impacts.
A list of “Christmas gifts”
As soon as the contents of Hydro-Québec’s brief began to filter on Monday, the Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy warned that it was rather between 8,000 and 10,000 MW that would be needed to allow “Quebec to reach its GHG reduction targets while creating wealth over the next few years”.
“23,000 (megawatts), we have to put the context. It’s a bit like the list of Christmas gifts. I think we will end up with, probably 8,000-10,000 MW of projects that will be done for decarbonization and wealth creation”, reiterated Mr. Fitzgibbon from the outset, during a press scrum. before the Hydro-Québec hearing.
On this list of requests totaling 23,000 MW, we find in particular the equivalent of 9,000 MW intended for the production of green hydrogen, projects that will not see the light of day. “It’s not going to happen,” Mr. Fitzgibbon dropped out.
To meet demand, Hydro-Québec will still have to increase its capacity.
“We are entering an era of high demand and we will have to increase electricity production at a much higher cost,” Mr. Rhéaume pointed out to parliamentarians.
Ultimately, this could mean higher costs for consumers or lower profitability for the state-owned company, he hinted.