Yellowfalls APPL 20090427
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EB-2009-0120 ONTARIO ENERGY BOARD IN THE MATTER OF the Ontario Energy Board Act, 1998, S.O. 1998, c.15 (Sched. B), as amended; AND IN THE MATTER OF an application by Yellow Falls Power Limited Partnership (“YFP”) for an Order pursuant to section 92 of the Ontario Energy Board Act, 1998 granting leave to construct transmission facilities that will connect YFP’s planned Yellow Falls Hydroelectric Project to Ontario’s transmission grid. INDEX TAB 1. Application 2. Pre-filed Evidence, with the following attachments: 3. Map of Project location and Transmission Line route 4. Map of Landowners adjacent to Transmission line route 5. List of Landowners adjacent to Transmission line route 6. Ontario Northland Crossing Agreement 7. Stakeholder Consultation and Information Disclosure Plan 8. Consultation and Information Disclosure Plan 9. Environmental Assessment 10. Landowner Notice Letter 11. Map First Nation Reserves 12. Request to Elevate Letter 13. The IESO’s System Impact Assessment Report dated July 6, 2006 14. Hydro One’s Customer Impact Assessment dated October 6, 2006 15. Chart of Project Schedule EB-2009-0120 ONTARIO ENERGY BOARD IN THE MATTER OF the Ontario Energy Board Act, 1998, S.O. 1998, c.15 (Sched. B), as amended; AND IN THE MATTER OF an application by Yellow Falls Power Limited Partnership (“YFP”) for an Order pursuant to section 92 of the Ontario Energy Board Act, 1998 granting leave to construct transmission facilities that will connect YFP’s planned Yellow Falls Hydroelectric Project to Ontario’s transmission grid. APPLICATION 1. The Applicant is Yellow Falls Power Limited Partnership (“YFP”), an Ontario-based limited partnership. Carlex Corporation Inc. is the general partner of YFP, and Canadian Hydro Developers, Inc. (50%) and two individuals (25% each) are the limited partners. The Applicant is constructing a run-of-river waterpower project with a nameplate capacity of 16 megawatts that will generate an estimated 70 gigawatt-hours per year of electricity from a renewable source (the “Project”). The Project is situated at Yellow Falls on the Mattagami River, approximately 18 km upstream from Smooth Rock Falls. 2. The Applicant proposes to transmit the electricity generated by the Project via an overhead line to the existing Hydro One Networks Inc. (“Hydro One”) 115 kilovolts (“kV”) transmission line “H9K”. The Project and the proposed transmission line are located in parts of Bradburn, Haggart, and Sydere Townships, in the District of Cochrane, Province of Ontario. 3. The Applicant applies to the Ontario Energy Board pursuant to section 92 of the Ontario Energy Board Act, 1998 (the “Act”) for leave to construct transmission facilities that will connect the Project to Ontario’s transmission grid. 4. YFP requests an Order granting leave to construct the following facilities: (a) A Customer Transformer Station (“CTS”) that steps up the generation of the waterpower project from 13.8 kilovolts (“kV”) to 115 kV on the west bank of the Mattagami River. (b) Approximately 25 km of over-head three phase 115 kV transmission line, from the CTS following a new access road constructed for the Project in a - 2 - EB-2009-0120 northwesterly direction to the existing Red Pine Road, then following Red Pine Road to Highway 11, and ending at Hydro One’s H9K circuit located between Malette Craft Junction and Fauquier Junction (c) A Customer Switching Station at the point of interconnection with Hydro One’s H9K line which will be owned and operated by the Applicant. 5. A map showing the proposed location of the transmission facilities is attached as Schedule A. 6. The proposed facilities will be constructed and paid for by the Applicant. 7. Hydro One and the Independent Electricity System Operator respectively issued a System Impact Assessment Report (the “SIA”) and a Customer Impact Assessment (the “CIA”) in 2006. Both of those reports were issued based on a previous design for the Project. Under the previous design, YFP had intended to locate the dam and powerhouse at Island Falls, rather than at its present location at Yellow Falls. The previously intended dam and powerhouse location at Island Falls is also on the Mattagami River, approximately 3 km downstream from Yellow Falls and its planned nameplate capacity was 20 MW rather than the present planned capacity of 16 MW. 8. The SIA and CIA prepared in 2006 will be updated to reflect the changes to the Project. Copies of the revised SIA and CIA will be filed in support of the application. 9. The Applicant has released the Final Environmental Assessment Report for the Project, which is filed in support of this application. 10. The proposed facilities will be constructed and paid for by YFP. Therefore, there will be no rate impacts on Ontario’s electricity consumers. 11. Additional written evidence, as may be required, will be filed in support of the application and may be amended from time to time prior to the Board’s final decision. 12. The proposed facilities will be located entirely on Crown land, and the Applicant will require land use permits from the Ministry of Natural Resources under the Public Lands Act. As a result, the Applicant does not need an order pursuant to s. 97 of the Act approving the form of the agreements to be offered to landowners affected by the proposed transmission route. The names of the private landowners in the vicinity of the proposed route of the transmission line are attached as Schedule B. 13. YFP requests that the Board proceed by way of written hearing, pursuant to Section 34.01 of the Board’s Rules of Practice and Procedure. - 3 - EB-2009-0120 14. YFP requests that a copy of all documents, filed with the Board by any party responding to the application be served on YFP, the Project Manager, and its counsel as set out below: (a) Yellow Falls Power Limited Partnership c/o Mr. Scott Hossie, Ontario Manager - Environmental Canadian Hydro Developers, Inc. 34 Harvard Road Guelph, ON, N1G 4V8 Tel: (519) 826-4645 Fax: (519) 826-4745 Email: [email protected] (b) Counsel to Yellow Falls Power Limited Partnership Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP Barristers & Solicitors Box 25, Commerce Court West 199 Bay Street, Suite 2800 Toronto, ON M5L 1A9 Attn: Sharon Wong Tel: (416) 863-4178 Fax: (416) 863-2653 Email: [email protected] Dated at Toronto, Ontario this 27th day of April, 2009. Yellow Falls Power Limited Partnership BY ITS COUNSEL, BLAKE, CASSELS & GRAYDON LLP __________________________________________ Sharon Wong Yellow Falls Hydroelectric Project Proposed 115KV Transmission Line VU634 E NE (115kV) H9K LIN EXISTING HYDRO O k " TOWN OF SMOOTH ROCK FALLS d a o R e n i P d e 11 R PROPOSED 115kV r e P v P I TRANSMISSION LINE i I O H R H N T S S A o R N N I g O e N W W O k R O O s T T H T u L A T M Y N D R E h R t A A R r I LW G D o AY N G N E A K H Sydere Road P P I I H H S S N N M W W a O O t Legend T T t a E N g R R a G Yellow Falls Project Location E U m D B i Y D R Customer Switching Station / S A k i R v Point of Interconnection B e r Proposed 115kV Transmission Line Existing Road 0 0.5 1 2 3 4 km ± G SCHEDULE B List of Landowners Adjacent to Proposed Transmission Line Bruce Barron Claude and Francine Levesque Mick Paarsalu Conrad and Lise Pelchat EB-2009-0120 Pre-Filed Evidence of YFP Page 1 of 28 1 PRE-FILED EVIDENCE OF THE APPLICANT 2 YELLOW FALLS POWER LIMITED PARTNERSHIP 3 1.0 THE APPLICANT 4 1.1 Yellow Falls Power Limited Partnership 5 The Applicant is Yellow Falls Power Limited Partnership (“YFP”). The Applicant is an Ontario 6 based limited partnership. Carlex Corporation Inc. is the general partner, and Canadian Hydro 7 Developers, Inc. (“Canadian Hydro”) (50%) and two individuals (25% each) are the limited 8 partners. 9 1.2 Canadian Hydro Developers, Inc. 10 Canadian Hydro is a publicly listed and traded company on the Toronto Stock Exchange 11 (TSX:KHD) and is focused on balancing the goals of investors in an environmental and socially 12 responsible manner. 13 14 Canadian Hydro has twenty generating plants currently in operation throughout Canada and 15 other plants under development. Canadian Hydro or its subsidiaries own and operate five 16 hydroelectric facilities within Ontario: 17 • Moose Rapids (Wanapitei River), 18 • Ragged Chute (Montreal River), 19 • Appleton (Mississippi River), 20 • Galetta (Mississippi River), and 21 • Misema (Misema River). EB-2009-0120 Pre-Filed Evidence of YFP Page 2 of 28 1 Canadian Hydro also operates one wind plant in Ontario – Melancthon EcoPower® Centre 2 (Melancthon Township). In addition to the Yellow Falls Hydroelectric Project, the company is 3 also constructing the Wolfe Island Wind Project (Township of Frontenac Islands, County of 4 Frontenac). 5 6 1.3 Authorized Representative of the Applicant 7 The authorized representative and primary contact person for the Applicant is: 8 Mr. Scott Hossie, 9 Ontario Manager - Environmental 10 c/o 34 Harvard Road 11 Guelph, ON, N1G 4V8 12 Tel: (519) 826-4645 13 Fax: (519) 826-4745 14 Email: [email protected] 15 16 2.0 LOCATION OF THE PROJECT 17 YFP is proposing to build and operate a 16 megawatt (“MW”) run-of-river1 waterpower project 18 at Yellow Falls on the Mattagami River, approximately 18 km south of Smooth Rock Falls, 19 Ontario (the “Project”).