Thursday, April 8, 2010

Power Play $$$$$

                                  Regardless which Province , State, or Country you live in,we are always asked (or taken from is more like it) for more money,.it's always rising costs, higher taxes, or were giving money by the 100's of millions to other country's (that don't even like us....hahahaha) but I always get a laugh ,when banks or oil companies boast about record profits..Just like this Gazette story about HydroQuebec ,....making Billions in profit ,but we never see a decrease in cost ,nor an increase in better service >...Hmmmmm   I wonder whose pockets are being filled here: but it happens everywhere,like an organized game plan (more like an organized Crime Plan)

MONTREAL ­­ Hydro-Québec posted a record income of almost $3.04 billion from continuing operations in 2009 despite strong recessionary headwinds that included less revenue from industrial sales in Quebec and a higher Canadian dollar.

“This is an historic summit for the enterprise,” chief executive officer Thierry Vandal told a Montreal Board of Trade luncheon Thursday. “We are very proud of this result.”

Active risk management in the form of financial hedges for exchange rates, aluminum prices and energy prices helped offset a drop in industrial sales in Quebec and revenue from exports, Vandal said.

The hedges were put in place before the severe downturn in 2008 and “we harvested the fruits of that during the crises,” Vandal later told reporters.

Hedging added about $600 million to the utility’s bottom line.

Vandal’s speech to a receptive audience of business leaders provided financial details for Hydro-Québec’s 2009 fiscal year along with an outline of ongoing hydroelectric projects and various projects related to the development of electric vehicles.

With a strong grid – which will see $8-billion in improvements over the next five years - and low-cost hydroelectric power, Quebec is ideally suited to electric vehicles, Vandal said.

“In Quebec, it would now be seven times less expensive to run (vehicles) on electricity than on gas,” he said.

Vandal also used the occasion to clarify a couple of issues related to the utility’s recent out-of-province ventures.

Firstly, the cancellation of Hydro-Québec’s $3.2-billion offer for most of New Brunswick Power Corp.’s generating assets has no impact on the utility’s 2009-2013 strategic plan, he said.

The deal – which was initially proposed by New Brunswick Premier Shawn Graham and subsequently ran into stiff public opposition – came apart as Hydro-Québec was assessing NB Power’s assets during the due diligence process, Vandal said.

It “exposed conditions and costs that Hydro-Québec was not ready to assume,” he said. “Those elements were quite significant, unforeseen and we weren’t able to resolve the differences” with NB Power.

Vandal addressed a recent published account about the 26-year power deal between Hydro-Québec and Vermont in which an energy expert estimated that the U.S. state would pay only 4.5 cents per kilowatt hour for the power.

“That is incorrect information,” he said.

If the cost formula for the deal was implemented today, Vermont would pay between six and seven cents per kilowatt hour in 2012, when the juice starts flowing south. Rates are linked to market prices and will evolve during the term of the contract, Vandal said.

Hydro-Québec’s net income for 2009 was almost $3.04 billion, or $106 million lower than the $3.14 billion posted in 2008 because results for that year were inflated by gains from a price adjustment related to the 2006 sale of the utility’s Chilean assets.

Income from discontinued assets in 2008 totalled $129 million.

Revenue from 2009 electricity sales in Quebec increased by $104 million from 2008 to almost $10.55 billion, mainly because of rate hikes. Revenue from large industrial customers dropped in part because of lower aluminum prices. Special industrial rates are linked to aluminum prices.

Revenue from exports in 2009 totaled $1.51 billion, compared to $1.92 billion in 2008, mainly because of a drop in energy prices.

In 2009, energy exports accounted for 10 per cent of Hydro-Quebec’s sales but 22 per cent of its revenue. In 2008, a bumper year for energy exports, about 32 per cent of the utility’s revenues were from energy exports which then made up eight per cent of its sales.

Hydro-Québec paid its sole shareholder, the Quebec government, a dividend of almost $2.17 billion.

Income from continuing operations in 2008 was $3.012 billion, compared to $3.035 billion in 2009.

More to follow.

8 comments:

john allison said...

That is great. More money for the residents......Such a good government... Thank Heaven for those wonderful compassionate politicians. Ya gotta love them....RIGHT??????

Ken McLaughlin said...

And the recent Quebec budget says that we will have to pay more for Hydro. Wow, hope they don't make profits for many years to come because us ordinary folks aren't going to be able to keep up!

Ken McLaughlin

Guy Billard said...

It is important for people to know that we pay far below the market price for our electricity. If we were to pay the market price like Alberta pays for their gas, we would be just as rich as Alberta.
Another example is the university fees, our fees are 2 or 3 times maybe more, what other privinces pay, that is why we get students from other provinces and countries, and the government wants to increase the fees by something like $100.00 perr year and the students are on the streets protesting.
No wonder we have such a large deficit.
Guy

john allison said...

Okay lets not get selfish. Those politicians need that extra money to spend for their expensive expense accounts. Lets not be selfish and deprive them of their joyful entitlement service....

Les F said...

..and as usual when 'Independent Quebec' (you know the we don't need no one group) well when they need help,guess who helps,Yup the CANADIAN Forces,......isn't that nice to fall back on,

How easy they forget,where the help comes from....... HF&RV

robert jomphe said...

may have something to do with security and activeX controlswill try to fix

Les F said...

National Geographic did a piece on the 1998 Ice Storm.......here it is:

HF&RV

Les F said...

Here is CBC segment from the news two days after the storm started,....One of our members DannyB ,had to stay in the city while his family,left for presumably warmer & safer spots,while he minded the homestead.......

Now I wonder if HydroQuebec refunded anyone their montly payments while the power was out ???? HF&RV