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Hydro-power to the people Sahtu MLA calls on federal government to champion $35-million Great Bear River project
Daron Letts
Northern News Services
Published Monday, August 19, 2013
DELINE/FORT FRANKLIN
Similar to many energy resources in the NWT, potential hydroelectric power generated from the Great Bear River has been explored, but unharnessed, since the 1940s.
The Deline Land Corporation wants the GNWT to help seek federal funding for a $30- to $35-million run-of-the-river hydroelectric system 10 kilometres from the community. Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger (above) and Sahtu MLA Norman Yakeleya toured the site by boat on Aug. 14. - photo courtesy of Norman Yakeleya |
The Deline Land Corporation hopes to change that by seeking GNWT support and federal funding to bring a hydroelectric project to fruition.
Rather than damming the river halfway between Deline and Tulita at St. Charles rapids, a $600-million, 600-megawatt option pitched to potential Mackenzie Valley Pipeline producers earlier this past decade, the land corporation is now proposing a cheaper, less-invasive, run-of-the-river system 10 kilometres from Deline.
The current proposal would involve a low head hydro power turbine system built within three kilometres of the mouth of Great Bear Lake - the distance before which ice forms over Great Bear River. The approximately $30- to $35-million structure would require a 400-metre-long bypass canal running parallel to the waterway. The turbines at the end of the canal would capture energy created from a one- to two-metre decline, generating about one megawatt - enough power to serve the needs of Deline's approximately 559 residents.
Danny Goudet from the land corporation brought Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger and Sahtu MLA Norman Yakeleya on a tour of the mouth of the river on Aug. 14 to present the plan. Yakeleya got on board the boat and he's staying on board with the project.
"We must look at developing our hydro energy in the same capacity as we are developing our oil energy in Norman Wells," Yakeleya said, a day after taking the two-and-a-half-hour boat ride.
"What does it take? I think it takes some imagination, some government commitment and the federal government to get on board and say, 'Well, this makes sense.'"
The GNWT has spent $300,000 on the land corporation's preliminary studies since 2007, according to Miltenberger, who added he is exploring the government's ability to assist with the last $210,000 needed for the final phase of the land corporation's pre-feasibility studies. These studies would look into impacts on fish and possible effects of ice on infrastructure.
The land corporation is also exploring a plan to produce enough hydro-power to sell energy to Tulita and Norman Wells, which would necessitate a marginally-larger project, according to Tom Anderson, a design engineer with the Tollhouse Energy Company.
"You'd have to divert more of the river," he said. "It all depends how much you're willing to divert. And there's some ways to get there."
The Washington-based engineering firm has visited Great Bear River six times between 2007 and 2011.
Anderson describes the low head hydro power turbine system being studied as "classic, old-school hydroelectric equipment that will last 50 to 80 years, hands down," after which "tweaks" may be required to maintain the system for another 50 years or so.
Anderson said he is confident in the engineers' ability to build a system large enough to power three communities in as quickly as three years, but financing is another issue.
"That, of course, is the problem," he said. "It costs a lot of money."
According to the company's calculations, hydro generation would cost Deline residents less than diesel, with the investment required to build the system being recouped after about 30 years. However, a transmission route to deliver energy to Norman Wells and Tulita has not been explored or priced yet.
"You've really got to look at the physical route and put real numbers to it before you can say what it's going to cost," Anderson said. "At this stage, what it really requires is some more thorough geotechnical work to understand what the underlying structure is that you're dealing with."
Drilling for a couple of core samples would determine what kind of rock lays beneath the bank and how the river might respond to the canal construction.
On paper, and in my imagination, it's certainly quite possible to do it and serve all three communities with no impact of fish and no impact to local transportation," he said.
Tollhouse delivered its latest report to the land corporation one year ago. The land corporation is awaiting government funding to move forward.
"They were out looking for money the last time we talked to them and as soon as they come back with the next piece of funding, we'll be back up there to do the geotechnical work and some more survey work to get things figured out," Anderson said, adding project cost estimates would be reassessed based on such findings.
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