City council in North Battleford has given its approval to agreements between Northland Power and the City to provide wastewater to the new power generation plant.
Council unanimously approved in principle seven water supply/discharge agreements at a special meeting Monday morning at city hall.
City administration had already agreed to a deal in principle with Northland Power to supply wastewater from its wastewater treatment plant to the new power plant (North Battleford Power) for its cooling needs. Administration had been discussing the terms of the agreements for the past year.
This latest stamp of approval from council allows the power plant to move forward quickly with the project, simplifies environmental and legal requirements and meets the needs of commercial lenders to the project.
Northland Power is borrowing over $600 million and had to meet time frames dictated by the banks, according to Director of Business Development Denis Lavertu. The special meeting was called so, "lenders can have a level of comfort to move forward with the next phase," he said.
The approved agreements are: a wastewater treatment plant license agreement permitting NB Power to construct, install, operate and maintain a treated wastewater supply system on WWTP property; a surge pond expansion agreement; a wastewater supply agreement setting the terms of supply, metering and billing rates of wastewater to NB Power; a road allowance agreement; a potable water supply agreement; a process effluent return agreement setting the terms of metering, billing rates and quality of wastewater from NB Power; and an agreement between City of North Battleford and RM of North Battleford No. 437 providing service to another community.
While the agreements themselves are complete, the schedules have not been finalized and those final agreements will need to come back to council for a resolution and vote at their regular meeting expected later this month.
The city says they expect the agreements to provide significant annual revenue to the City.
Almost all capital costs for the project are the responsibility of Northland Power, including the cost of the pipelines pumping the water to the facility. The exception is with the equalization pond expansion, which is a 50/50 cost share with the city.
Lavertu told reporters the approval allows Northland Power to move forward quickly with their plans to use city wastewater to cool their power plant.
"Northland Power requires water for cooling purposes for their system," Lavertu said. "We are providing them with effluent water, which is wastewater and not drinkable, potable water, that they're going to pipe through their facility and then also return it back to us," so the City could dispose of it, he said.
"It's easier for them to utilize the City's services through our license and agreement with the Ministry of Environment," said Lavertu, who would otherwise have needed to wait another two years if they did it on their own. Lavertu said North Battleford Power needed to be up and running a lot sooner according to their contract with the province.
The City will also be seeing considerable revenue generated by supplying the wastewater to Northland Power's new plant.
"The City will have another industrial client," said Lavertu.
The City will be supplying wastewater to NB Power at a discounted rate of 25 per cent of the rate for potable water charged by the city to its industrial clients as established by bylaw.
For the return of wastewater from NB Power to the City, the rate will be 100 per cent of the rate for potable water that the city charges industrial clients from time to time. Lavertu told reporters this could generate revenue of between $200,000 to $500,000 per year, which would help offset utility costs.
Lavertu also told reporters he expects the final agreements will be ready to come back to council for final approval at their next meeting on July 25.
