In an interview with CBC Radio’s St. John’s Morning Show on Monday, deputy premier Kathy Dunderdale told listeners that Muskrat Falls power will cost between 14.3 and 16.5 cents per kilowatt hour to produce in 2017, the year of first commercial power.
Jeff Gilhooley: And how much – I’ve only got a minute left here unfortunately – I didn’t hear that in the announcement on Thursday, what is the new power going to cost us?
Kathy Dunderdale: The new power is going to cost us about $165 a megawatt hour.
Gilhooley: And how does that compare with what is coming out of Holyrood now? Any idea?
Dunderdale: Ah, I wouldn’t be able to give you that comparison right off the top of my head, Geoff, I don’t have those numbers before us, before me, but in terms of when we bring that on in 2017 that’s the cost in 2017, $165, or excuse me it’s $143 a megawatt hour. Anything that we would do other than Muskrat Falls would be either the same cost at that time, but escalating right up through the roof over the next 10, 15, 20 years.
The provincial government has not released any information the models they used to forecast prices for alternatives to building Muskrat Falls. As such, Dunderdale’s claim about prices escalating through the roof is as reliable as her claim about the death of the Rhode Island memorandum of understanding.
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Technicolor Dreaming Update: In an interview with CBC’s supper hour news program, Dunderdale said that government’s price estimates for electricity include a PIRA forecast of crude prices being 50% above current levels by 2017-2020. That would put crude at prices above US$120.
Double Down Update: nottawa takes this a step further and offers a link to a comparison of electricity prices over the past decade. The Williams Muskrat Falls proposal is based on the idea electricity prices will double within the next 10 years.