13 June 2011

Nalcor negotiating Muskrat transmission with Hydro-Quebec

Nalcor is currently trying to strike a deal with Hydro-Quebec on wheeling power through the province to other markets

Read all about it in the Toronto Star.

Newfoundland and Quebec are now trying to negotiate a deal in which Nalcor could get a right of way to move its power through Quebec, directly to Ontario.

It’s buried in an article in which Nalcor chief executive Ed Martin tries to play up the Muskrat project as being cost competitive.

Sounds a bit like the 1964 ploy is still on the go.  That’s the one where Smallwood talked up the Maritime route as a way to get a deal with Quebec, the real preferred option.

Makes sense:  after all, despite all the hysterics and the bullshite to distract the media and the punters, Danny Williams tried consistently via secret talks to try and get Hydro-Quebec to get involved in the Lower Churchill. Local media still haven’t reported that story almost two full years after Kathy Dunderdale blurted it out in public. 

Of course, the Star also doesn’t tell its readers that they would be getting power heavily discounted compared to the price Martin will force on the good taxpayers of Newfoundland and Labrador.

The article notes that Ontario currently pays a wholesale price of 3.15 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity.  Muskrat will cost Newfoundlanders 14.3 cents per Kwh according to current estimates.

- srbp -