Nunavik community inks deal with Hydro-Québec
HQ will purchase, distribute power from Inukjuak’s proposed hydroelectric project
An artist’s rendering of the dam, spillway and hydroelectric power station that would make up the proposed Innavik project, located about 10 kilometres outside Inukjuak. The 7.5-megawatt hydroelectric project would generate basic electricity needs for the community of 1,800. (Image courtesy of Innavik)
Nunavik’s Innavik hydroelectric project now has a signed agreement to sell energy to Quebec’s power corporation.
The Pituvik Landholding Corp. in Inukjuak has paired up with Innergex Development Corp. to develop Innavik, a run-of-river 7.5-megawatt generating station along the Inukjuak river.
The two organizations finalized a power purchase agreement with Hydro-Québec, announced on Monday, May 27.
The 40-year agreement will see Innavik sell hydroelectric power for a fixed annual amount to Hydro-Québec, which will continue to be the main power distributor in Inukjuak. The deal has now been submitted to Quebec’s energy board for final approval.
“The Innavik project is a key factor in the energy transition strategy for our off-grid systems,” said Éric Filion, president of Hydro-Québec Distribution, during the May 27 press conference.
“This is a win-win situation for the people of Inukjuak, for Hydro-Québec, which will reduce its operating costs, and for Quebecers as a whole, thanks to the significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.”
For its part, Hydro-Québec said Innavik’s energy production, which will produce the basic power needs for the community of about 1,800, will result in a 20 per cent drop in its local operating costs.
The project’s proponents estimate that Innavik will cut hydrocarbon consumption by more than 80 per cent and greenhouse gas emissions by some 700,000 tonnes over a 40-year period.
Innavik has been a long time coming: it was in 2007 when the local landholding corporation first commissioned feasibility studies to look at potential sites along both the Inukjuak and Kongut Rivers.
The project sat dormant until 2015, when Pituvik paired up with Innergex, a Quebec-based renewable energies engineering firm.
Pituvik and Innergex have proposed building a generating station about 10 kilometres from the mouth of the Inukjuak River.
This generating station would be powered by water that’s diverted from the river through a pipe and then returned to the river downstream.
The site would consist of a series of four natural vertical drops over a 2.7-kilometre stretch.
The project infrastructure would also include a power plant to house two generating units, a rockfill dam and spillway, a bridge across the Inukjuak river, as well as a 25-kilovolt transmission line installed on wooden poles connecting to Hydro-Québec’s existing plant north of the village.
The estimated cost of the construction is about $125 million; Pituvik will apply for federal grants to cover most of those costs.
The Kativik Environmental Quality Commission hosted hearings on the project last March, to give community members and regional organizations a chance to weigh in.
An environmental and social impact assessment concluded that the project “will have minor or negligible residual impacts on the biological and human environments,” but is ultimately “compatible with the objectives expressed by the community.”
The KEQC is expected to issue a decision and any recommendations on the project in June.
If Innavik gets the green light, construction on the project would begin by August. The hydroelectric plant would then open by 2020.
Lock up your daughters — here come the construction workers with their booze and their sex.
True that ! i’ve seen it and heard of it many times.
Tusuli I wish Nunavut can do the same and with our land claim we are so behind compared to Nunavik and they investing their money while NTI is just trying to earn interest which is not working for its people but only the politicians are gaining from it.
Just plain embarrassing!
The Nunavut Government and the Designated Inuit Organizations have forgotten about it’s beneficiaries and now only govern themselves for the betterment of themselves, not the population.
Were the GN and DIOs responsible for all the complaining and Not In My Backyardism from people in Iqaluit when QEC proposed their hydro project? Well, okay, maybe QIA.
I am wondering if the housing will be able to switch to electric heat and electric hotwater heaters or will they keep the same setup at the moment?
i will be hoping to get our power connected from Inukjuaq – Umiujaq. Our power station is so noisy 24hrs a day 7 days a week 365 days a year not mentioning decade after decade. Noise = Pollution…unless we get our damn dam.