Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Still no news

One really does have to wonder what is going on between NSPI and the various wind energy companies that have made their applications to provide NSPI with power.

It is now two months past the deadline that NSPI gave for announcing the "winners" and still only one project has been announced (Point Tupper in Cape Breton).

What is the hold up?

Or maybe that's the problem .... someone is being "held up".

What is the advantage to NSPI or these energy companies to delay making their announcements?

If everything is fine, all parties involved are happy, what is the delay for?

It really is very frustrating, not just for the people involved (or not) in the Pugwash project, but for the many more people around the Province who also want to know what may be coming to their neighbourhood (or not).

All we know is that 3G at Higgins Mountain/Rodney and Cape Breton Power will not be part of this RFP (but may be in the next one).

There are 25 companies who are on the interconnection queue http://oasis.nspower.ca/documents/GIP_Queue.pdf offering a total 1348MW power. All but two are wind energy projects. None has dropped off the list since October 2007 when a 50MW project in Antigonish County disappeared. That is a lot of people keeping quiet. When you consider how many people must be intimately involved in each project and multiply that by 25, that is a LOT of people keeping mum.

There is, of course, a lot at stake too, and if confidentiality is the tipping point, then one can perhaps understand the thundering silence.

The only changes to report on the queue is that the status of each project eventually changes from Impact Study Agrmnt tendered by customer to Impact Study Agrmnt Complete. As of today there is only one project left to get to the "complete" status. February 5th report had four, January 21st had five and December 5th had 17.

Does this mean that we are just waiting for this last project to be finalized? This project (#128) is in Cumberland County and is 17th in the queue. It has requested interconnection point L-6536 (Amherst area) since April 2007. Project #149 turned up in July requesting the same interconnection point. As of today's report, #128 now requests interconnection L-6535 which is also the interconnection point for project #45 (5th in the queue). The only other (potentially) shared interconnection point is in Pictou for projects #86 and #115.

Whether any of this jockeying for position is anything to do with the delay in informing the public as to where we may or may not be seeing wind turbines, is anyone's guess.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well since you are an expert in contract negotiations Lisa, perhaps you are the only one that can explain why projects that are collectively worth almost 1/2 a billion dollars in assets and 10's millions in revenues are taking so long. When has anything of this size ever been on time in Nova Scotia. Take a history lesson and get back to us!

Anonymous said...

NSP is holding us all hostage, those waiting on promised incomes, those wondering if neighbouring lands now quiet and fallow will be turned into noisy industrial parks.

Anonymous said...

I think NSP is on the right track by increasing Wind Power and reducing burning coal, regardless of the situation. You need to think about our childrens future with the quility of air to breath. There's not much fules left to burn in the next 20 years. Also global warming is goiong to impact our lifes too, not to mention our children 40-60 years from now. Think people, its not what matters now but the future from now, lets lead by example in a positive way, not by saying, we don't want this or that. Its going to come down to 2 things, 40-60 years from now people are either going to say, "what a great idea they had by producing wind power", or "they had a chance and blew it, life on earth is terrible, why didn't they do something sooner." I don't care where these things go, as long as it saves lives. If one goes in my back yard then so be it, I'll just move somewhere else, no big deal. I just can't beleive that some people care about no one but them selves.

Lisa said...

Anonymous #1. Not sure what your point is except to elevate me to contracts negotiation expert which I am not and never claimed to be - that's why I am asking questions. If there is no history of this kind of situation, where would a person go for this history lesson?? Thinking I touched a nerve there though.

Anonymous #2. Very true. As I have said before, ALL parties involved are being affected by this delay in announcements.

Anonymous #3. You are so wrong about the relationship between wind and coal generated power, I thought it was about time I set people like you straight and set up today's (Saturday March 1st) post.

You are also wrong on how much fossil fuel is available. There is at least 100 years worth of coal available, but it would be difficult, dangerous, polluting and very expensive to get it. So, not the best way to go if it can be avoided.

Why on earth should you, or anyone else, have to move away from your home because of a wind turbine in your backyard, when it could have been put in a better location in the first place?

Not saying there's NO place for wind turbines, just saying there's the APPROPRIATE place for them.

Anonymous said...

Hi Lisa, I'm not wrong.

Anonymous said...

Lisa, you always seem to love thinking that you touched someone's nerves by the comments and postings that you make here. Your comments and blog postings are almost always disguised with some form of insinuation. If you disagree with that then go back through your postings while also taking a lesson from Aristotle and many other great thinkers on their references to "The Art of Persuasion". Perhaps it is just your way of things and you don't actaully realize what you are doing.

Also with regards to your retort to anonymous #3 you have dangerously lingered closely to your true beliefs. One being that you don't care if the planet is polluted with fossil fuel burning generators and two this is all about you. Where are you on the battle fronts that actually matter, like say the one down by Avondale where a Gypsum mine is looking to expand its operations by permanently destroying over 400 hectares of land and doing far more damage to that region than 50 or a 100 turbines could ever do. Where are you on any issue where land is really being destroyed, property values are tanking and people really are getting sick. You are no where near these issues, because you only care about yourself. Instead of picking an issue where there really is supporting evidence of environmental damage and many of the issues you say wind farms bring, you instead pick something that is helping the environment and not you. If you ever claim to be doing this for altruistic reasons than you will be called out on the carpet for what you really are. Start doing something good and stop being so damn selfish!