N.L. appealing 'unjust' Hydro-Qubec decision

Newfoundland and Labrador's energy corporation is launching an appeal of a controverial decisionby a Quebec energy regulator last May.

"We've done some additional research, and some additional detailed research from a legal perspective. It not only supports our initial view, it confirms it," said Ed Martin, CEO of Nalcor a provincially-owned energy company.

Quebec's Rgie de l'nergie dismissed Newfoundland and Labrador's complaint in May that Hydro-Qubec is unfairly blocking the province's goal of transmitting power produced in Labrador through Quebec.

The ruling sparked a political furor at the Newfoundland and Labrador legislature, where Premier Danny Williams termed it a "blatantly incorrect and unjust decision."

Martin said Nalcor is still arguing that Hydro-Qubec is being unfair. He said the appeal, which will be filed in June, won't be heard by the same members of the Quebec board who handed down the May decision.

"That reconsideration will be heard by others than those who were on the initial panel," he said.

Nalcor is in a dispute with Hydro-Qubec over the transmission of power from the proposed $6.5 billion Lower Churchill hydro-electric development in central Labrador.

Nalcor filed a complaint with Quebec's energy board arguing that Hydro-Qubec wasn't following open access rules that govern the fair use of transmission lines to bring power to market.

Hydro-Qubec maintains it cannot spare the excess capacity in its existing transmission system to transport power from the Lower Churchill site.

Williams said last week there can be no definite timeline for the project's development until the transmission issue is settled.

On Wednesday, Martin said the Lower Churchill project is too big to rush.

"We have clear instructions from the province," he said. "Expedite, push, go, but we have clear instructions, do not feel rushed with respect to making the right deal."

Nalcor has been looking at another possible power transmission route from Labrador to under the Strait of Belle Isle to western Newfoundland and then across the Island and under the Cabot Strait to Nova Scotia.

Martin said the company is close to presenting government with cost estimates for that route.