Councillor Josh Goguen

The company NB Power chose to build a 500 MW gas/diesel generating plant on the Chignecto Isthmus promised to supply  its PE6000 jet engine turbines at a lower cost than its competitors’ turbines while minimizing the time needed for construction by using a modular power-plant concept known as PowerFLX.

“Through standardization, the PowerFLX solution eliminates variability, dramatically decreases costs through economies of scale, and allows for accelerated installation,” the U.S. company WattBridge, a subsidiary of PROENERGY, said in a document it submitted to NB Power on August 8, 2024 in response to the utility’s request for expressions of interest.

“This plant design has been used in more than 65 package installations for WattBridge and other parties since 2021,” the company states, adding that the engineering, procurement and construction phases of the project would contribute more than $172 million in “economic uplift” to local and surrounding areas.

The document was one of several released in response to a right to information request filed in October by Tantramar Councillor Josh Goguen.

He made his request after PROENERGY Canada President John MacIsaac told members of council they should “fact check” his statements that the North Shore Mi’kmaq Tribal Council had invested in the gas plant project.

Documents that NB Power released in early November to Warktimes and that are also included in the latest package sent to Councillor Goguen, do not support MacIsaac’s claim that the Mi’kmaq had agreed to invest in the plant.

The documents do show, however, that Indigenous investment was possible and legal steps were taken to make it happen although the Chiefs of the nine Mi’gmaq First Nations have said since that the project can’t go ahead until it undergoes a rigorous, Mi’gmaq-led, rights impact assessment.

Two plants?

PE6000 aereoderivative gas turbine. Photo: WattBridge

NB Power’s request for expressions of interest says it is seeking proposals for a 400 MW gas/diesel plant “with option to expand at a single plant site,” an apparent reference to an additional 100 MW that the utility has since said it will sell to an unidentified customer to help reduce costs.

WattBridge’s proposal in 2024, however, mentions “two phases of 400 MW each” but the locations of the two plants are blacked out.

During a public meeting last week in Sackville, NB Power VP Brad Coady explained that the utility is planning for a 600 MW plant in the Scoudouc Industrial Park just in case it’s needed in the years ahead.

“I commit to you right now there are no plans for future expansion of the Tantramar site,” he promised. “It’s a 500 MW site.”

To read the batch of heavily-redacted documents from NB Power, click here.