Local greenhouses brace for gas shortage
Fortis B.C. will be challenged to manage the supply of natural gas, but will not run out as long as people conserve as they have been doing since an Oct. 9 rupture of the Enbridge pipeline north of Prince George, the company says.
The firm estimates that supplies this winter will be half to 80 per cent of what they would normally be. But there shouldn’t be an immediate rate spike, said Sean Beardow, manager of corporate communications for Fortis.
“We wouldn’t see the impact on the current situation until next year,” he said. “Our goal is to make sure all our customers have natural gas and that’s where we are at now. If we hit a situation where demand increases and are worried about supply, there are things we can do.”
Greenhouse operators, however, are concerned.
“There’s a good chance it may affect next year’s production,” said Linda Delli Santi, executive director of the B.C. Greenhouse Growers Association.
Delli Santi said labour and natural gas for heating are a grower’s highest costs, so right now they’re being careful as always about gas consumption. But there is concern that after the pipeline is repaired, it won’t run at full capacity for awhile, she added.
Greenhouses have boilers that can burn alternate fuels, typically diesel, but this can only be done for a few days without special maintenance to the systems, Delli Santi said.
“The unfortunate thing is that we export a lot of our products to the U.S. and they aren’t being affected by this, so of course we’ll come to the table with a higher cost of production than the competitors.”
Jos Moerman, co-owner of Sunnyside Produce, said gas service to their Surrey and Delta greenhouses was interrupted after the pipeline explosion, so they were temporarily forced to switch to their wood-burning and diesel backups.
Sunnyside has since returned to natural gas but at a higher price and Moerman said that will cut into their profit. They sell a lot of their sweet bell peppers to Costco in the U.S. and Canada, who will turn to Ontario, Mexico or elsewhere if they try to raise prices, Moerman said.
In order to remain competitive he can’t pass his additional costs onto consumers, he said.
“We are a supply and demand business,” he said. “We don’t get any subsidies and we compete on the open market.”
Moerman said Sunnyside will likely spend about $300,000 for natural gas this month for the two greenhouses, up from about $120,000 last month. They will still remove their old crop in November and plant in December, to have product ready for market in March. But the financial impacts of the explosion are expected to be severe.
“The impact of gas prices is very negative for us,” he said.
One silver lining is that meteorologists expect above-average temperatures in the coming months.
Matt MacDonald, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said this is mainly for two reasons: Sea-surface temperature anomalies off B.C.’s coast — colloquially known as “The Blob” — and the development of an El Niño in the equatorial Pacific, which typically brings above-average temperatures to the province in early January.