Chafee seeks to tap Canadian hydropower

GOV. LINCOLN D. CHAFEE , left, and Toray executive John Eustis tour the Churchill Falls hydroelectric plant in Canada on Saturday. / COURTESY OFFICE OF GOV. LINCOLN D. CHAFEE
GOV. LINCOLN D. CHAFEE , left, and Toray executive John Eustis tour the Churchill Falls hydroelectric plant in Canada on Saturday. / COURTESY OFFICE OF GOV. LINCOLN D. CHAFEE

LABRADOR, Canada – On Friday, the Canadian government said it would back a loan to expand a massive hydroelectric power plant along the Churchill River in Labrador. On Saturday, Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee was there, trying to ensure some of that electricity heads to Rhode Island.
In an interview Saturday, the governor said electricity from Nalcor Energy’s Lower Churchill hydroelectric project could help stabilize or lower electric bills and encourage industry and jobs to stay in the Ocean State.
“They have the generating capacity, we have the market,” he said by phone. “It’s a matter of just regionalizing it.”
Nalcor expects the $6.2 billion project to generate 824 megawatts of power by 2017, with about 40 percent of it headed to locations outside Labrador. The project would complement the underground Churchill Falls Generating Station.
On Saturday, Chafee toured the plant along with John Eustis, an executive at Toray Plastics (America) Inc., which maintains facilities in North Kingstown. The company is Rhode Island’s largest electric user and one of the state’s top employers. Executives have routinely cited Rhode Island’s relatively expensive electricity as an impediment to expanding.
“Every business that uses any significant amount of electricity is affected by our high energy costs in New England,” Chafee said. “That’s one of the determinants to our growth.”
Toray, however, may be the most prominent. Executives have publicly stated that they are mulling whether to invest millions of dollars in Rhode Island or in Virginia, where electric prices are lower. On Saturday, Eustis said executives are keenly aware of moves by Ocean State officials to keep electricity prices low.
“We’re always on the lookout for lower costs,” said Eustis, Toray’s senior director of corporate procurement and logistics.
On Monday afternoon, the company is expected to ask the R.I. Economic Development Corporation for a $1 million grant to construct a solar farm at its North Kingstown plant in an effort to lower electric costs. (Read related article.)
Eustis visited Canada at the invitation of Chafee. The governor said the idea for the tour came during the New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers Annual Conference in July.

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