There are only two weeks left for companies to ask Quebec for a special allocation of electrical power. Many will, however, be disappointed, warns Pierre Fitzgibbon.
For a little over a year, the Minister of Economy and Energy has had the power to accept or refuse all power requests submitted by companies that exceed, not just 50 megawatts ( MW) and more, as before, but ten times, that is, 5 MW and more.
The deadline to submit a project is March 31. Last year, 11 projects were accepted out of around twenty requests for a total capacity of nearly 1000 MW.
“The problem is that we have 10,000 MW of interesting projects on the table and that in the short term, we simply do not have these capacities,” explained the minister on Friday during a forum on green transition organized by the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal and which had more than 600 participants.
In fact, until energy saving measures and the development of new production capacities increase the available supply, Quebec will have to deal with “an energy shortage for around ten years. Consequently, we will have to be parsimonious in the way we consume it,” declared the minister. The industrial projects that will receive the green light will have stood out mainly because of their contribution to economic development and the fight against climate change.
Also, among all those who will have presented a project by March 31, “there will be some who will be happy, but [beaucoup] others who will be very disappointed,” said Pierre Fitzgibbon. “That’s the bad news. »
“The good news,” he continued, is that “many” other local and foreign companies are so interested in “reasonably priced green energy” from Quebec that waiting 4 or 5 years “is not the end of the world” for them. Or that they are ready to make all kinds of adjustments, such as resorting to self-production of electricity or adapting their operating methods to reduce their energy consumption, particularly during peak periods. day or year.
To increase Hydro-Québec’s production capacities, as well as to enable the realization of structuring industrial projects, such as the Northvolt battery factory, it will be necessary to know how to adapt the legal and regulatory framework to a rapidly changing reality, argued Peter Fitzgibbon. “We will have to find a way to move faster, to be more agile, more flexible, while remaining rigorous. »
It has to hurt
The forum organized by the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal was intended to be an opportunity to take stock of the level of progress of the green transition in the metropolis and in Quebec, but above all to exchange inspiring stories, good practices and contacts in this matter.
The results of a survey were presented showing that 87% of companies and 94% of business leaders in the metropolis were convinced of the importance of proceeding with the green transition, but that only 52% of companies have adopted of a plan in this area.
This number corresponds to the proportion of them (51%) for whom climate change is among the most important issues, behind economic uncertainty (61%) and labor scarcity (62%). and inflation (66%).
One of Quebec’s great advantages is that there is generally a greater political and social consensus on the importance of climate issues than elsewhere in North America, said Grégoire Baillargeon, president for Quebec of the Banque de Montreal, one of the main partners of the event.
The co-founder of the Montreal Climate Partnership, a gathering of around a hundred economic, community and institutional organizations working to achieve carbon neutrality in the metropolis, Karel Mayrand, had a warning to give to the audience, given of the scale of the climate crisis and how far humanity is falling behind. Since the easiest actions in this area have generally already been taken, “if it’s not difficult, you’re probably not doing enough.”