November 19, 2008

Work resumes at Plutonic Power’s Toba Inlet site

Peter Kenter

correspondent

Work at Plutonic Power’s Toba Inlet site was scheduled to resume today, after a plane carrying workers to the site crashed into Spyglass Hill on November 16, 2008.

Seven people perished in the crash, including the pilot. Thomas Wilson, a business manager with Kiewit, is the only survivor. He is expected to recover fully.

Peter Kiewit Sons is the general contractor for the project, on behalf of owner Plutonic Power Corporation.

Plutonic is a Vancouver-based company that specializes in developing run-of-the-river hydroelectric projects in British Columbia. In these projects, water isn’t dammed, but harnessed as it passes through a steep watercourse.

“This is one of the most environmentally friendly, low impact sources of electricity generation available,” says Elisha Moreno, Director of Corporate Communications for Plutonic.

The company searches out potential sites, applies for permits to lease the land from the provincial government for 40 years, then builds and operates the projects, selling electricity to the province at a fixed price.

Currently under construction is the East Toba and Montrose Project, which will consist of two facilities located at the headwaters of the Toba Inlet on the East Toba River and Montrose Creek. Together, the facilities will generate 196 megawatts of electricity.

Work on the project, which has a construction value of about $660 million, began in July 2007. The facility is expected to begin operation in 2010.

“To this point, the majority of the work has been civil, rehabilitating old forestry logging roads and some old bridges to bring construction supplies to the site,” says Moreno.

Transmission lines will also make use of existing logging roads to plug the project into the BC power grid. Supplies are transported by barge, truck and trailer to a campsite housing 290 workers.

The goal this year is to bring in as much construction material as possible so that work can commence on permanent infrastructure throughout the winter.

– RCD Digital Media

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