It is time to reflect on the pricing of electricity consumption by industrial players, believes the president and CEO of Hydro-Québec, Sophie Brochu. The state company will not be able to offer the same rate indefinitely without “digging a financial hole”.
Due to hydroelectricity’s smaller environmental footprint, Hydro-Quebec is experiencing unprecedented industrial demand, Ms.me Brochu during a speech before the Council on International Relations of Montreal (CORIM), Monday.
She mentioned that the electrical production capacity for the industrial sector in Quebec was 8,500 megawatts (MW), compared to 5,000 MW for Ontario. “Today, there are more than 10,000 MW of people who want to come and settle in Quebec. Big projects, 100, 200, 300 MW. In the last ten years, not a single 50 MW project has come to Quebec. »
This request comes at a time when the Crown corporation estimates that it will need new electricity supplies starting in 2027. The cost of the heritage block is 3¢ per kilowatt hour (kWh). The average cost of post-heritage supplies will average 11¢. “If we get our supplies at 11¢ and we have an industrial rate of 5¢, well, that doesn’t work,” said Ms.me Leaflet.
It will be up to the government to decide whether it is worth selling electricity at a loss in certain cases by taking into account the economic spinoffs of a project, such as innovation, job creation or tax spinoffs, specifies she.
Questioned on the subject at the beginning of the month, the Minister of the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, had mentioned that it would inevitably be necessary to prioritize industrial projects in Quebec due to the tightening of electricity surpluses. “Perhaps some projects will not see the light of day in the future because it would be more beneficial for Quebec to put the allocation of hydroelectricity elsewhere,” he said. This is clearly an issue that we must study. »
However, we must question the relevance of selling our electricity at a low price, said the manager at a press briefing on the sidelines of the event. “We don’t want to stay in the paradigm of ‘we don’t sell expensive’ knowing that our marginal supply costs are much higher than our historical costs, so we won’t dig a financial hole for life”, underlines- she.
Hydroelectricity has environmental advantages, which justify higher billing for companies, she judges. “If you’re able to sell a product and you’re able to sell it for more because you’re clean, that means you’re able to pay more for your electricity because it’s clean. »