BC Hydro says it wants 3,000 gigawatt hours (GWh) of new clean power. Alaska Hydro says it can deliver 484 GWh – about 16 per cent of the new power needs – with a small hydro-electric dam on More Creek.
So what’s the problem? Why is BC Hydro telling Alaska Hydro it won’t qualify under the new power call?
Cliff Grandison, president of Alaska Hydro, said the reason he is being told his project will not qualify under BC Hydro's latest new call for power is that all new projects would need at least 25 per cent equity participation by local First Nations, and the Tahltan First Nation has made it clear in the past that it does not support the project.
The $300 million hydro storage dam and generator would be located on More Creek, a tributary of the Iskut River, and would generate 484 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity.
The project entered the BC Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) process in 2016 but it has been stalled at the pre-application stage.
After Site C dam was approved, BC Hydro and the B.C. government didn’t think any additional power would be needed for many years to come, so projects like the More Creek hydro power languished.
But now that BC Hydro is forecasting a potential power shortfall in just a few years and has put out a new power call, Grandison thought the time was right to put his More Creek hydro-electric project back on the front burner.
But the new power call requires that projects have 25 per cent equity participation by First Nations, and the More Creek project doesn't have that.
The Tahltan are generally industry friendly, and have supported other power projects, notably the Forrest Kerr run-of-river project. But the Tahltan made it clear in 2017 that it does not support the damning of More Creek for a hydro-power project.
“We have worked with power companies with run-of-river projects that respect our rights and the environment,” former Tahltan Central Government President Chad Day said in a press release in 2017. “This project is very different – it will drown More Creek.”
Grandison acknowledges that the More Creek project will not qualify during the current BC Hydro power call for a power purchase agreement. But he still thinks the project could be built, if a private power customer could be found.
“We can sell electricity to private users or for our own use,” he said. “There is demand from LNG plants, hydrogen producers, crypto currency miners and metal miners. BC Hydro cannot supply all the demand so our day will come.”
But even if Grandison were able to find a private buyer for the power from the More Creek project, his dam proposal has one other serious problem.
To build the dam, More Creek would have to be “inundated,” which would impact an access road used for the Galore Creek mine project – a project that the Tahltan support.
Despite this apparent irreconcilable impasse, Grandison still holds out hope his project may still one day be considered.
“We do not qualify for the call, but we intend to see if we can find a private customer, or we’ll be around in a couple of years when they are coming back to the market for more power,” Grandison said.
