A meeting between members of the Revelstoke-based North Columbia Environmental Society (NCES) and representatives of Canadian Hydro, a significant proponent of independent power production in the Revelstoke area, has resulted in a ‘positive’ outcome, said NCES President Sarah Newton last week.

“We had a meeting with Canadian Hydro,” said Newton, who’s organization has been a strong critic of IPPs developed by groups such as Canadian Hydro. “They area a huge player in our area.”

“It was an excellent meeting,” said Newton. “It was a really good meeting, they are the kind of company you hope for as a proponent in your area.”

Newton applauded Canadian Hydro’s openness regarding their work on IPPs in the Revelstoke area.

“We appreciate their willingness to have dialogue with the community,” stated Newton. “They’ve had open houses and they readily agreed to meet with us ... they gave us three hours of their time.”

In their meeting, Newton says the two groups discussed the applications Canadian Hydro has on many rivers and streams in the Revelstoke area. Newton said that the discussion allayed some of the fears NCES members had about development on ecologically sensitive waterways in the region.

One area the groups addressed in their discussion, explained Newton, were a set of new BC Hydro regulations which significantly devalued power produced during the spring run-off period, a period when many IPPs would be at their power production peak.

“BC Hydro has changed some of the regulations around spring run-off,” said Newton. “And what [the new regulations] have done is put a lot of projects on hold in our area.”

Newton explained that the new regulations now make it unprofitable to build IPPs on waterways which don’t produce a significant amount of power during the winter, when most streams are at their lowest flows, and when power demand is at its peak.

“The regulations have devalued power created during spring run-off,” said Newton. “No one is going to put a project on a creek that can’t give power in the winter, now. It’s just not worth it: BC Hydro won’t pay them.”

Newton said explained that while large reservoir-based facilities like Revelstoke’s dam produce ‘hard power,’ which can be used at any time, the smaller run-of-river projects typical of IPPs produce ‘soft power’ which is limited by the amount of water flowing through the waterway.

According to Newton, BC Hydro’s new regulations have changed how organizations like Canadian Hydro are pursuing water licence applications.

“For Canadian Hydro, they have 20 water licence applications, and they’re not going to go through with any of them, at least at the moment. But those licences are for 40 years,” said Newton.

Despite this positive news for opponents of IPPs, Newton explained that the NCES and other groups are still concerned about ‘cheap licences’ which make applying for water licences on waterways relatively inexpensive.

“[Low prices] have spawned this crazy ‘gold rush’,” explained Newton.

“People can tell us, ‘Don’t worry it’s just a water licence application’,” said Newton. “But it still is very daunting when you have water licences on over 70 creeks and rivers in this area.”

Newton explained that the inexpensive licences have caused many groups, including Canadian Hydro, to make numerous applications without any real plan on developing the majority of the applications.

Yet despite the positive news for IPP opponents, Newton said her organization is still concerned about many applications in the Revelstoke area. Also, said Newton, despite the fact that IPP proponents might not plan on developing a certain water licence, Newton noted, “those licences are for 40 years.”