Q. What type of energy do you develop today?

A. Run of River Power is focused on hydro-electric power today. The company has in excess of 200 MW of potential capacity assuming all of our projects are built out. That is enough to service approximately 90,000 homes with power.

Q. Where are your properties located?

A. There are two main areas in which we are accumulating several properties. Both the Upper Mamquam and the Pitt River watersheds are located in the Whistler area of British Columbia. These two watersheds are adjacent to each other and the proximity of the rivers enables us to develop significant economies of scale as the projects are built. The rivers we have chosen tend to have predictable water flow and are located in close proximity to the Greater Vancouver area, where the bulk of the province's power demand comes from.

Q. What does "run of river" mean?

A. A "run of river" hydro-electric project refers to a facility whereby you divert some of the water from the river, direct it through a penstock (a pipe that narrows as it gets closer to the power house), pass it through turbines to create the electricity and then divert it back onto the river downstream.

Q. What is meant by Green Power?

A. Green power simply refers to the fact that this is an environmentally friendly way to generate power. This type of project is environmentally friendly in that screens are in place at the intake to prevent damage to the fish or aquatic life in the stream. The other way of looking at this, is that in the case of Brandywine Creek, our first project, it will offset 12,000 to 14,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually. That is the equivalent of shutting down a conventional coal or oil power plant providing the same power output.

Q.How long does it take build a run-of-river powerhouse?

A. A run-of-river power facility, including the penstock and associated transmission would generally take 24 to 30 months to construct but may take longer depending upon the availability of equipment and Constructors.


Q. How much does it cost to build a "run of river" hydro-electric facility?

A. Clearly the cost will vary depending on the terrain that has to be accessed and the length of the transmission lines required to carry the electricity to the power grid. In broad terms, the cost is approximately $2 million per MW. In the case of our company, we have carefully selected projects that are not only close to Vancouver, but also rivers that are close to each other, in order to save on the costs of both transmission lines and power houses. In some cases we can share the transmission line of another independent power producer who has already spent the money to build the transmission line. We would then pay a fee to cover any additional costs to share that existing line.

Q. How do you finance these projects?

A. Typically the financing of these projects will be a combination of cash, debt and equity. A run of river project such as what we are building can often finance up to 80% of the cost. The balance would then consist of a combination of cash from the company or an equity financing in the public markets for the remaining 20%. These projects are built at the point that there is a known buyer for the power. In the case of our Brandywine Creek project, we have a 20 year contract with BC Hydro to buy Brandywine's power. The terms of this type of financing can be very attractive as there is a relatively predictable cash flow to service the debt.