The community of Cochrane is hopeful that time is all that’s needed to secure a new energy-generation contract with the province to keep its cogeneration plant up and running.
In May, the 25-year contract between the plant’s owner, Northland Power, and the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) expired, leaving the future of the plant uncertain and 30 workers facing unemployment.
Northland kept workers on the payroll for a few months, anticipating a new contract could be negotiated. Some employees have transferred to Northland’s other plants, but by mid-July, the company began issuing termination notices.
“We remain hopeful that we will be able to establish a new, long-term agreement with the Independent Electricity System Operator,” Northland president John Brace said in a July 16 statement. “If we are successful, we will be in a position to rehire our employees.”
Northland had an opportunity to renegotiate the contract last year, before its original, January 2015 expiration date, but those negotiations were fruitless. Northland received a four-month extension to try to find a solution, but to no avail.
The province then suspended all contract negotiations between the IESO and non-utility generators (NUGs) while it worked out a new framework for the negotiations. That framework is now expected to be announced in September.
Cochrane Mayor Peter Politis called the situation “the most frustrating file” he’s dealt with during his tenure in office.
“The challenges we’re facing have nothing to do with the usual market or business factors that you have no control over,” he said. “It’s very questionable decision-making being made on behalf of the province. This is a money-making facility. Now they’re talking about building the exact same facility in Hamilton.”
Moving the plant to southern Ontario would not only put 30 people out of work, but it would have lasting economic ramifications for the community, he said.
The facility uses the forestry waste from local sawmills as biomass, annually diverting 175,000 tons of waste from the community landfill. To start dumping that waste at the landfill would reduce its life from 30 years to two years, Politis said.
In addition to the 30 jobs at the cogeneration plant, roughly 500 jobs hinge on the success of the town’s two sawmills, which benefit from having a buyer for its forestry waste.
Cochrane heats its events centre for free with waste heat from the biomass plan and the plant is the largest purchaser of town water, Politis said.
