Hydro-Quebec is facing more bad news about the low level of water in its reservoirs in James Bay.
By this spring, the reservoirs will be only 16-per-cent full, according to a report last week by Michel Morin, a journalist at French CBC TV.
The water levels are so low Hydro may have to import power “massively” from the U.S. and other provinces next year, and break its promise not to increase electricity rates, Morin reported.
The problems may also impact on Hydro revenues and the Quebec government’s zero-deficit objectives.
No word on whether Hydro plans to slow down its plan to dramatically expand electricity exports to the U.S. If the exports continue, Hydro will be in the bizarre situation of selling power to the U.S. and buying it back at a higher price, at a time when energy reserves are at record lows in Quebec.
At the moment, the reservoirs are filled to 45 per cent of their capacity, according to Morin’s report. That’s low compared to four years ago, when they were at 70 per cent of their capacity in November 1994.
Not since 1989 have the reservoir levels been so low at the beginning of the winter. In Nov. 1994, Hydro had the equivalent of 117 terawatt-hours (TWh) of energy reserves. Now, it has 77 TWh. About 50 TWh are needed for Quebec to get through the winter, when energy use is high.
But in the past, Morin reported, Hydro-Quebec has always tried to keep, on top of a winter reserve of 50 TWh, an additional reserve of 64 TWh in its reservoirs. This “security” reserve was kept in case very little rain falls for two years running.
In another development, Hydro-Quebec has pulled the plug on cut-rate power deals that have cost the utility $1.5 billion in lost revenues since the early 1990s. It announced last week that it won’t sign any more of the deals with aluminum makers, in which power was sold at well below industrial rates.
