Vaughn Palmer joins Philip Till to discuss BC becoming energy self-sufficient - CKNW - 6:50 AM - July 10, 2007

Philip Till: This is Vaughn Palmer's new daily timeslot on the CKNW Morning News.

The good news this morning is that the B.C. Government is moving to put an end to B.C.'s dependence on imported electricity. This is good.

But, the critics say it will drive up the price of electricity in British Columbia, and that is bad.

So, the question Vaughn Palmer, are the critics correct?

Vaughn Palmer: Well, the critics have a point when they say electricity is going to cost more, yes, I think we can say that with absolute certainty, electricity is going to cost more. How are we going to get it?

Well, at the moment, we buy when it's cheap from outside B.C. and sell it when it's more expensive from outside B.C., so we trade back and forth.

Overall though Philip, increasingly, we bring in more power than we send out and the government says we need to be self-sufficient. I think that's probably a good idea in the long run that we become self-sufficient.

Because if we're dependent on imported electricity and the price outside B.C. goes up, we'll be paying more and we'll probably by buying power from coal-fired plants and things like that because a lot of our neighbours make electricity with by burning coal.

We want to be greener, we better start building capacity here in B.C. and that's what's special direction number ten is. I know it sounds like something from cult headquarters.

Philip Till: Yes, it kinda reminded me of East Berlin.

Vaughn Palmer: It's a cabinet order to the Utilities Commission, and what it basically says is in future, when you're approving power plants in B.C. keep in mind that one of our goals is to make ourselves energy self-sufficient.

So, what it means is the Utilities Commission looks at a proposal to build a wind farm. They can't turn around and say well actually you know, this is going to be expensive, why don't you just buy cheap power from Alberta?

In future, they've got to go, no wait a minute, in the long run British Columbia has to become self-sufficient in energy, it also has to be green, so in the long run, that wind farm in British Columbia is a good idea and it makes it more likely that'll be approved.

Philip Till: But will it be enough? A new wind farm here and there?

Vaughn Palmer: I think, well wind farms work really well with hydraulic systems because when the wind's blowing, you store water behind the dams and when the wind stops blowing, you spill water through the dams. So, they work well together.

Yeah, I think in the long run we're going to end up with some wind farms. I don't know about this biomass stuff; I'm not sure that will work, but I think we're going to try some of that.

I don't think you're going to see nuclear power, I think you're going to mainly see hydro-electric power. They're already adding a couple of generating stations to a couple of the big dams in the Interior that still have some room to grow.