Quebec-New Brunswick reach energy conclusion

Thursday, 21 January 2010

The Canadian provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick have concluded negotiations on an energy agreement that will see Hydro-Quebec acquire most of NB Power's generation assets including the Point Lepreau nuclear power station. 
 

Point Lepreau: soon to change hands for $1.3 billion (Image: NB Power)

The joint announcement by the provinces' premiers followed on from a memorandum of understanding signed in October 2009. The C$3.2 billion ($3.0 billion) global transaction will see Hydro-Quebec acquire the Point Lepreau nuclear power station for C$1.4 billion ($1.3 billion) once the current refurbishment at the plant is completed. Hydro-Quebec will also acquire NB Power's non-nuclear generation including seven hydroelectric generation facilities, two diesel peaking units, and association transmission rights including some to transmit to New England in the USA, for C$1.8 billion ($1.7 billion). NB Power's transmission and distribution arms and the deferral account associated with the Point Lepreau refurbishment will be retained by the province of New Brunswick.
 
Hydro-Quebec will act as an electricity wholesaler to NB Power, providing it with 14 TWh of electricity per year under a long-term contract.
 
The transaction is expected to close on or around 31 March 2010 for all the assets except Point Lepreau, which will not be transferred until the successful completion of the current refurbishment project and the issue of the necessary operating permits. This is expected to take place on or about 1 January 2011.
 
Point Lepreau's single 680 MWe Candu 6 pressurized heavy water reactor provides up to 30% of New Brunswick's electricity, but was shut down at the end of March 2008 for a C$1.4 billion ($1.3 billion) refurbishment outage that will extend its operation by an additional 25 to 30 years. Main activities to be conducted during the outage include the replacement of all 380 fuel channels, calandria tubes and feeder tubes, as well as other station maintenance work. The refurbishment outage had been due for completion by July 2009 but in October of that year Atomic Energy of Canada's (AECL's) president and CEO announced a new completion date of 15 October 2010. MacDiarmid said at the time that the July 2009 deadline had been "overly ambitious from the start".

 

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News