Plutonic said the contribution would come in the form of an incentive of Can$10/MWh (US$7.89/MWh) over the first 10 years of operations. The contribution is being made available under the Government's “ecoENERGY for Renewable Power” initiative.
The run-of-river plants will have an installed capacity of 196MW - comprising East Toba (123MW) and Montrose (73MW). They are expected to generate more than 725GWh (net) of electricity annually after they come into service, which is scheduled for mid-2010.
Plutonic is developing the plants in partnership with GE Energy Financial Services. Construction began in mid-2007 and the budget is approximately Can$660M (US$520M). The contractor of the turnkey works is Peter Kiewit Sons Co.
The funding pact on the scheme sees GE contributing to project finance in exchange for a 49% stake and 60% economic holding.
GE and Plutonic said last year that they planned to build on their co-operation on the scheme to step-up investments and developments to 1GW of installed capacity in British Columbia. The partners envisaged that approximately Can4B (US$3.15B) would be needed for the proposed run-of-river schemes in Upper Toba Valley (three plants) and Bute Inlet (18 plants).
