While KM LNG waits for a definitive answer from BC Hydro, premier Christy Clark says there will be no problem with electrical supply to the plant - at least the first phase.
Tim Wall, president of Apache Canada which holds a 40 per cent interest in the proposed liquefied natural gas plant, told the Northern Sentinel the first phase (or train) of the project would consume about 250 megawatts.
Given the current schedule for the RTA smelter modernisation, KM LNG’s new demand for 250mw would hit soon after BC Hydro had lost about the same amount from RTA, which essentially translates into the utility having to find another 500mw.
Wall said, “We’re talking to BC Hydro about that...and we’re trying to work things on not only the first train, but also the second train.”
Asked if BC Hydro had given the company any assurances yet on the power supply, he replied, “To some degree. They know this is important to BC and they’re really working hard to get it done.” Wall added, “I think it’ll be there in the end.”
Clark is much more definite: “We are confident, absolutely confident that phase one will be powered up - no question - with existing resources,” she told the Sentinel last week.
As for the second train, “I am confident about that, although there is still work to be done.”
However, Clark said, when it came to other LNG projects further down the road - “there’s five proponents” - BC was going to have to look for more sources of power for those.
That said, she added, “We have a planning horizon for it and we have the ability to do it. There are lots of options.”
Asked if one of the options would be a gas-fired power plant, she repeated, “There are a whole lot of options that have been put on the table for discussion and we are discussing them now.”
Given those discussions were taking place 5-6 years in advance of the need, she said “We will be ready.”
And declared, “I am not going to let a lack of power get in the way of creating economic opportunity in the North. We have a responsibility to make it work.”