Voght Street office of a local mine benefiting from new Hydro infrastructure.
File Photo KDG
Robin a worker for Shaw Cable was pulling fiber through a pipe on Voght street here in Merritt Thursday. The laid off hydro worker said he had to change jobs when Hydro laid off a lot of people to accommodate apprentice trained workers.
The cable came from Parker Drive,Telus has lines on the poles above as well as Hydro lines in the top position on the poles.
When asked about site C he thought that that may be the reason for the lay off. He was aware of some of hydro’s activities in alternate energy including replacing some oil burning generators in small communities , working with distilling algae from sewage as well as some windmills.
BC Hydro’s Power Smart program encourages energy conservation among its residential, commercial, and industrial customers. The program also aims to promote energy saving retail products and building construction, and includes a “Sustainable Communities Program”. Its in-house Resource Smart program is used to identify and implement efficiency gains at existing BC Hydro facilities. BC Hydro also practices energy conservation at its generating facilities through the continuous monitoring and efficient use of the water resources used to power its generators.
BC Hydro is committed by the BC government’s Energy Plan to achieve electric power self-sufficiency in the province by 2016, with all new generation plants having zero net greenhouse gas emissions by the same year.[28] In 2013, BC Hydro released an Integrated Resource Plan which includes meeting at least 66 percent of the expected increase in electricity demand through increased energy efficiency.
BC Hydro has also entered into energy purchase contracts with a new category of company created by special legislation, Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to buy electricity generated from intermittent renewable sources, mainly from small capacity run of river hydro and more recently, wind power, wood residue energy, and energy from organic municipal waste. There has been some criticism of this policy on the basis that it will result in Hydro paying significantly higher rates to private producers than it would have if the power were self-generated.
BC has a policy not to develop nuclear power.
: source Wikipedia
BC Hydro operates 31 hydroelectric facilities and three natural gas-fueled thermal power plants. As of 2014, 95 per cent of the province’s electricity was produced by hydroelectric generating stations, which consist mostly of large hydroelectric dams on the Columbia and Peace Rivers. BC Hydro’s various facilities generate between 43,000 and 54,000 gigawatt hours of electricity annually, depending on prevailing water levels. BC Hydro’s capacity is about 11,000 megawatts.
To be continued.
On this Day: January 15th 1892
James Naismith publishes the rules to Basketball.
Kevin Griffiths
percypaschal
