Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement on the net metering issue. It involves, I believe, the Minister of ENR for renewable energy, the Minister of NTPC, Mr. Roland, and the Minister of PUB, Mr. McLeod. So I don’t have a druthers on who this is directed at, but I’d like to begin by finding out exactly what regulatory process is required to set up net metering for Yellowknife and the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Hon. Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue of net metering is one that has been looked at. In fact, a recommendation was made by the PUB through, I believe, the 2006–2008 General Rate Application. At that point there was direction given to look at what opportunities there were and come back with a proposal on that. It affects a number of areas. For example, when an individual or a company is generating power for themselves and they want to hook up to the system, there’s the interconnection guidelines that have to fall into place. They’ve been working on those.
The Power Corporation itself is open to having discussions with individuals who would like to hook up to the system. There are a number of factors that do fall into this, though. It is, for example, building into the rates if they’re going to buy power from a company or an individual. Standby rates the Power Corporation would have to take into consideration. As well, there are some hook up fees.
One of the other areas that they’re trying to deal with is the metering system. Right now it’s to have a meter be able to record the existing pattern going in one direction and then flowing back the other if the individual or company needs to draw down power from our existing grid.
Thanks for those comments. I think that if the Minister were to look into this, the process actually began a number of years before that. I wonder if I could find out exactly where we’re at right now and when we can expect the capability for this operationally to be in place.
We are working on coming forward with all the information, and I will get the additional information on exactly where, for example, the metering system is. I know from the Power Corporation side they’re open to having discussions. There are a number of factors, for example, to buying back the power, standby rates and some of the safety issues there. I will commit to the Member to get back the detail on just where we’re sitting today with that.
I appreciate that offer. That sounds wonderful. The experience in other jurisdictions — and I want to stress that this has been done for millions of households, so this is off the shelf technology. But where it has been done for the first time, typically the utility or some powers that be end up putting barriers in place through, for example, requiring unrealistically expensive meters and so on. I wonder if we can expedite this process by just getting all the players together at the table. I think this is a modus operandi of this government.
Would the Minister be able to facilitate getting people together on a very practical basis to come up with an efficient way of getting this done and then having it approved through the regulatory process but very much expediting this process?
I think there are a number of factors that are occurring as we have this discussion. In fact, I think Northland NWT is in the final phases of coming up with some of these arrangements that would see an agreement in place between a customer and their own company. That, I believe, has gone forward to the PUB for review. So these things are coming in place, and if there are areas with problems, I’ll gladly look at ways we can bring the appropriate parties together to try to make things happen.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Great. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thanks again to the Minister for those comments. Again, I just want to stress that the experience in other jurisdictions is that when they tried to do this sort of thing, they’ve had to go through a long process because of the unreasonable requirements that initially come out of the utilities. It’s just sort of a heads up and an opportunity for us to expedite the system in an efficient way by dealing with that.
Maybe I’ll just ask if the Minister would be willing to at least be aware of that and be keen should the opportunity come up to deal with that issue before the years go by again.
We are looking at a number of ways to try to reduce the cost of living in the Northwest Territories. The Member is right; this is not a new area. It is fairly new for the Northwest Territories or at least for the Power Corporation. Yes, we know that we need to step up to the plate in this area to look at what we can do. There has to be recognition from all parties, though, that there’s a fixed infrastructure in place for the Northwest Territories and our communities. Although we’re trying to transition away, for example, from diesel generation, there’s still that fixed cost, the backup that we have to take into the equation when we talk about setting up these agreements and standby rates and so on.
So those are things that come into the mix, and as I’ve informed the Member, we’ll be looking at ways we can try to step up to the plate here and make it happen. I’ll be glad to sit down with the Member and go through more detail as well.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
