NB Power officials waiting to address town council. L-R: VP Brad Coady, Project Mgr. Stephen Cooper, senior technical specialist Matt Gorman & commercial analyst Jordan Russell

This is the first in a two-part series on NB  Power’s meeting with Tantramar Town Council.

NB Power Vice President Brad Coady warned Tantramar council Wednesday night that the 500 MW gas/diesel plant near Centre Village is essential if the province is to avoid likely blackouts in the years ahead.

“I don’t say that to alarm anybody,” Coady said after he predicted what would happen if the utility’s contract to buy 10 gas turbines from the U.S. fell through.

He said NB Power would then be forced to order new combustion turbines that would probably not be available for another seven years.

“It likely means energy shortages starting in ’28, ’29, ’30, ’31 until we actually see commissioning in 2032,” he warned, adding that gas turbines such as the ones on order from PROENERGY are in high demand.

“We hear from associations like Electricity Canada and other member utilities…’How did you guys get ahead of the curve?’ because everybody else is trying to catch up to where New Brunswick is now,” Coady said.

“If we were to cancel this whole thing and say, ‘You know what, time out, let’s re-evaluate, we want to start over,’ it’s likely 2032 before we can actually see the new solution materialize.”

Coady’s warning came near the end of a two-hour, question-and-answer session with council after Mayor Andrew Black reminded the NB Power executive that the town is now officially opposed to the proposed gas plant.

‘No ideal site’

NB Power VP Brad Coady answering council’s questions as about 60 people listen

“There is no ideal site for a project like this,” Coady told council.

“It’s regrettable that it causes angst,” he said. “It can be emotionally and politically charged and we scoured New Brunswick for the right site.”

Coady added that unfortunately for some of the people in the council chamber listening to him, the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline and three 138KV electrical transmission lines intersect near Centre Village on NB Power-owned land. He said that if the project gets approved, that intersection would eliminate the need to upset multiple landowners by extending the gas pipeline or the transmission lines across private properties.

“Having both co-located on the same parcel of land, it gives us a more beneficial, less environmental-impact solution, less-costly solution and easier-to-integrate-to-our-grid solution,” he said.

Coady said the Scoudouc industrial park had been NB Power’s primary site, but fish habitat there would have delayed getting permits from environmental regulators until after the 2028 deadline for completing construction.

He added there was also “a lot of opposition from First Nations [who] said, ‘Hey, we would prefer if you don’t build it in that location, go somewhere else.'”

Coady said NB Power had acquired the land near Centre Village as a backup and after what he referred to as “a very tense few months of investigations,” it became the primary site.

He said he understood “all the pleasant things” that people say about Tantramar, “and I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me, there needs to be a better place in New Brunswick than Tantramar for this type of a project’ because we understood the opposition that would come with it.”

In the end however, he said it came down to pushing ahead with a timeline and a site that would eliminate the risk of New Brunswickers running short of power in the next couple of years.

‘Scare tactics’

Protest signs in the town hall lobby. Mayor Black had asked community members to remove them from the chamber

After the council meeting, Barry Rothfuss, one of the founders of the Coalition to Protect the Chignecto Isthmus, accused NB Power of using “scare tactics” to justify building a gas plant on the ecologically vulnerable Chignecto Isthmus.

“They’re using the excuse that it’s this timeline that essentially is forcing them to build something that they shouldn’t be building here,” he said.

“And that they don’t have time to do other things because of the fact that our energy grid is going to start collapsing,” Rothfuss added.

“What they’re really saying is ‘forget about the environment, forget about the community, we’re going to force this on you.'”

This is the first in a two-part series. Part Two will focus on issues that members of council asked about including environmental effects, battery alternatives and the lack of council and community consultation.

Note: Tantramar’s Climate Change Advisory Committee has arranged a public Q&A session with NB Power from 7-9 p.m. on Wednesday, January 14, with the location to be determined.