Early last week, Nalcor Energy told the province's Public Utilities Board that it plans a few changes in its dealing with the board. The energy company is now going to have pointman Gilbert Bennett, a Nalcor vice-president, handle the PUB's concerns. Nalcor also lawyered up, telling the PUB in the same Nov. 7 letter that they "also wish to advise the board that Nalcor has recently retained the services of Thomas J. O'Reilly, Q.C. of the law firm, Cox and Palmer, as legal counsel in relation to the Muskrat Falls review process."
More interesting is that Nalcor has agreed to start releasing some of the project documentation that, until now, it has kept secret. Containing what Nalcor calls commercially sensitive material, the information has been filed with the PUB, but blocked from public release.
Now, however, the company will make more of that information available, saying, "We have begun to screen our confidential exhibits and to abridge or redact them to permit public release. ... We agree that completion of this process is important to facilitate public participation in the review process."
But just because the information is being redacted for release, that doesn't mean that whatever's left behind actually constitutes real information.
Take, for example, the budget estimate documents Nalcor filed concerning the possibility of the purchase of a 50 megawatt gas turbine: now, that should contain some fascinating information about generating electricity from natural gas. At least, it contains some fascinating redactions.
From: ***** ******
Date: 07/06/2010 03:09 PM
Subject: RE: New Gas Turbine Plant
Andrea,
My apologies, I spoke too soon about the **** option, remembering after that we had been looking at using only liquid fuel for this facility. Unfortunately, I can't offer *** for use with liquid fuel. I've attached performance runs based on the site elevation used in our previous discussions for the ********* and ******* and ******** and *******. These can all achieve ******* NOx on liquid fuel using ********* for NOx control. The ***** feature will boost power output at ******* if that is what you desire, though as you see from the performance data there is also a *************************. It would be advantageous to determine how often you think you would be using the **** feature, though it does offer a significant power boost at *******. If you have your latest fuel oil specifications, I can use that in the performance model to provide a more specific picture of the output and heat rate you can expect from these units.
The first available shipment for the ******* is ******* and the first available shipment for the ********** is *********. The next availability is *********** for both (based on present orders).
The budgetary price is ********* (US) for the ******** and ******* (US) for the *******.
******* adds approximately ****** to the price of the unit. These prices include ******** for NOx control. I can get ****** pricing, but would need to know what NOx emissions level you plan to achieve
Installation costs can certainly vary depending upon a number of things ***********************. Total installed cost, **********************.
I'd be pleased to discuss this information with you and would also be happy to meet with you at your offices to discuss the latest ********* developments.
Regards.
*****
**************
************
******
****************
****************
**********************
********************
*******************************
Not to put too fine a point on it: Nalcor has argued that natural gas isn't an acceptable option for providing power to the Northeast Avalon, and that Muskrat Falls is the best deal.
But, should you want to consider what kind of gas turbines they might be looking at, you can't know what they were considering buying, what it would cost, what kind of options it offered, what kind of scrubbers it has available, when it can be delivered, what kinds of special pricing are offered, what the total installed costs are, or, for that matter, what or who Nalcor was dealing with in the process.
As open processes go, this certainly seems to be missing a piece or two - it's hard enough to read between the lines, let alone between the redactions.
Russell Wangersky is The Telegram's editorial page editor. Email: rwanger@thetelegram.com.
This is a corrected version.
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Haha what? Good job on embracing the new title. You and David Vardy - crying for attention. Alzheimer's is knocking on the door.