Just a reminder that the City of Kimberley is hosting an open house on Wednesday, July 23 from 1 to 7 p.m. at Centennial Hall.
Senior management, Mayor and Council will be on hand to answer questions and provide information on two of Kimberley’s biggest projects — the Mark Creek flume rehab project and the SunMine. The Mark Creek flume project is scheduled to be completed in 2015, after federal/provincial grant money was received for the final two thirds of the project. The Sun Mine construction is underway, again with the assistance of government grant money and assistance from Teck as well as other agencies. The Sun Mine is scheduled to begin producing power in January of 2015.
The business plan for the SunMine is available at City Hall and online at kimberley.ca. In that business plan it is stated that power will be sold to BC Hydro at $110.10 per megawatt hour. However, Sally Masters at BC Hydro says the price Hydro will pay per megawatt is actually $106.84.
City of Kimberley CAO Scott Sommerville says that $110.10 is an average of $106.84/MWh (2014 price) times 104 per cent annual average rate times 2015 CPI Increase)
“The EPA price paid over the next 25 years is based on $106.84/MWh with a CPI increase,” Sommerville said. “The price paid in 2015 (when the plant is operational) will be $106.84 plus CPI. (Average 1.75 per cent over the last three years)
“There is also a rate adjustment of 104 per cent for the time of day (premium hours are 7am-5pm), and month of the year (premium months are August to March).
“The time of day premium during prime sunshine hours will work in the SunMine’s favour.”
Sommerville says that according to his calculations, the average will actually come out higher than $110.
“I have calculated that it will come out higher than that, but we felt it was safer to under-promise and over-deliver. I wanted to clarify that 104 per cent is an ‘annual average’ rate. The rate varies each month.”