Gina, you didn’t mention the potential of large scale battery storage like Ontario just chose. Battery storage is cheaper than an equivalent LNG plant and can work seamlessly with the existing grid. My wife and I were at earlier meetings about the Kings County wind farm. The people at the meetings I attended were curious and mostly neutral to positive about the possibility. We live close to where they will be located but far enough away that we won’t see them from our valley, people on the south-facing hills probably will but they are 7 km away. We desperately need alternatives to fossil fuels coming online as fast as possible. Solar and wind combined with large scale battery storage are the cheapest most reliable alternatives. Both are relatively fast to build and use the wind and sunlight that is free for the taking, don’t fluctuate in price and can be locally owned and operated, create local jobs and gradually get us off of fossil fuel dependency.
Here in Edmundston : one sixty-year-old transmission line, six major failures in eighteen months... I'm no expert, but I notice something recurring: everything being removed has a deadline, everything being built is in the future tense.
I think you’re right that so much of this comes back to public trust.
NB Power has not lost that trust because of one decision. It has been years of things adding up. Questionable spending, expensive leadership changes, delayed projects, infrastructure problems, and decisions that people in our communities hear about directly because they work on these projects.
It feels like one more thing ticking away at trust each time.
As the song says, we didn’t start the fire. It was always burning.
I may have my own bias here, but I’ve often wondered what New Brunswick’s power system would look like today if the Hydro-Québec deal under Shawn Graham had gone through. Part of me thinks we may have ended up with a system that was more affordable and less of a long-term liability.
At the same time, I understand why public trust fell apart. Graham was trying to do two difficult things at once: make the deal attractive enough for Hydro-Québec, while also telling New Brunswickers that NB Power was a major public liability. While also having another PM undermine his effort furthering public distrust here in NB.
That is a hard message to sell. If you emphasize the liability too much, people wonder why Hydro-Québec wants it. If you emphasize the value too much, people wonder why New Brunswick would sell it.
And that is where I struggle. It is easy to say NB Power should have been sold or that private industry would have managed it better. But maybe some of these rate increases were unavoidable either way. The debt was still there. The infrastructure problems were still there. Mactaquac was still there.
Sorry, a very long way to say I agree with you but the not so long ago history really makes this a touchy and nuanced situation.
Thanks Dylan. I completely agree that nuance is hazardous territory, and yet, that is often the language of business: read between the lines, check the footnotes of the annual financial reports, ask everyone you can find about their perspective of the problems and possible solutions we are facing.
I cannot imagine the pressure of government ministers trying to sort out their portfolios, but being told to keep their tinder dry because of all the other political and economic demands the province is facing simultaneously. And in the midst of all of that is a lack of clear information, amplified personal opinions and the growing absence of trust.
That's my long way of saying I agree with your sentiments.
Gina, you didn’t mention the potential of large scale battery storage like Ontario just chose. Battery storage is cheaper than an equivalent LNG plant and can work seamlessly with the existing grid. My wife and I were at earlier meetings about the Kings County wind farm. The people at the meetings I attended were curious and mostly neutral to positive about the possibility. We live close to where they will be located but far enough away that we won’t see them from our valley, people on the south-facing hills probably will but they are 7 km away. We desperately need alternatives to fossil fuels coming online as fast as possible. Solar and wind combined with large scale battery storage are the cheapest most reliable alternatives. Both are relatively fast to build and use the wind and sunlight that is free for the taking, don’t fluctuate in price and can be locally owned and operated, create local jobs and gradually get us off of fossil fuel dependency.
Thanks Peter! Storage is absolutely something that needs to be addressed and I am very interested in more information on those systems.
I live off grid
Of course you do, Jeff! That’s quite a commitment.
Here in Edmundston : one sixty-year-old transmission line, six major failures in eighteen months... I'm no expert, but I notice something recurring: everything being removed has a deadline, everything being built is in the future tense.
I think you’re right that so much of this comes back to public trust.
NB Power has not lost that trust because of one decision. It has been years of things adding up. Questionable spending, expensive leadership changes, delayed projects, infrastructure problems, and decisions that people in our communities hear about directly because they work on these projects.
It feels like one more thing ticking away at trust each time.
As the song says, we didn’t start the fire. It was always burning.
I may have my own bias here, but I’ve often wondered what New Brunswick’s power system would look like today if the Hydro-Québec deal under Shawn Graham had gone through. Part of me thinks we may have ended up with a system that was more affordable and less of a long-term liability.
At the same time, I understand why public trust fell apart. Graham was trying to do two difficult things at once: make the deal attractive enough for Hydro-Québec, while also telling New Brunswickers that NB Power was a major public liability. While also having another PM undermine his effort furthering public distrust here in NB.
That is a hard message to sell. If you emphasize the liability too much, people wonder why Hydro-Québec wants it. If you emphasize the value too much, people wonder why New Brunswick would sell it.
And that is where I struggle. It is easy to say NB Power should have been sold or that private industry would have managed it better. But maybe some of these rate increases were unavoidable either way. The debt was still there. The infrastructure problems were still there. Mactaquac was still there.
Sorry, a very long way to say I agree with you but the not so long ago history really makes this a touchy and nuanced situation.
Thanks Dylan. I completely agree that nuance is hazardous territory, and yet, that is often the language of business: read between the lines, check the footnotes of the annual financial reports, ask everyone you can find about their perspective of the problems and possible solutions we are facing.
I cannot imagine the pressure of government ministers trying to sort out their portfolios, but being told to keep their tinder dry because of all the other political and economic demands the province is facing simultaneously. And in the midst of all of that is a lack of clear information, amplified personal opinions and the growing absence of trust.
That's my long way of saying I agree with your sentiments.
Solar battery storage for everyone ❤️ Indaviduals before large battery storage
I watch the development of storage with interest.