VANCOUVER – A McBride area run-of-river project is now delivering clean, reliable power to BC Hydro’s grid. The Castle Creek facility began producing electricity last week and is expected to generate 34 gigawatt hours of clean electricity a year – enough electricity to power 3,100 homes annually.
“I’m excited to see this local project in service, delivering clean, renewable energy to the Robson Valley,” said Shirley Bond, Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training and MLA for Prince George-Valemount. “During construction, it contributed to the local economy by providing a number of community-based jobs. Moving forward, it will continue to have a positive impact on the McBride area by providing backup power in the event of an outage, improving reliability.
The project is designed to provide “islanding” for McBride – if a problem affects the BC Hydro transmission line supplying power to the community and causes a power outage, the Castle Creek facility can supply power to the community.
“The Castle Creek project is unique because it will generate clean electricity and directly improve the quality of electrical service to McBride,” said Jessica McDonald, BC Hydro president and CEO. “Until now, BC Hydro has had to rely on a diesel generating unit for backup power for McBride. The configuration with the new project will reduce the need for diesel generation, and reduce costs and greenhouse gas emissions.”
The project was developed by Castle Mountain Hydro. BC Hydro signed an agreement in 2010 to purchase power from the project under the Clean Power Call – a request for proposals from projects capable of providing clean electricity using proven technologies such as hydro, wind and solar, among others. The call resulted in agreements for 27 projects, which are expected to generate 3,266 gigawatt hours of electricity a year – enough to power more than 290,000 homes annually.
“This project has been years in the making, and will provide significant benefits to the community of McBride,” said Peter Hulka, president of Castle Mountain Hydro. “We are happy to contract this project and its attributes to assist BC Hydro in providing secure and stable energy to the area.”
