09/22/2020
The Committee of the Whole meeting agenda for this Thursday (Sept. 24, 2020) has a report on the Replacement of Road Users Agreement as part of the Decommissioning of the WPD White Pines Wind Energy Project.
The report can be found athttps://princeedwardcounty.civicweb.net/filepro/documents/190113?preview=203993&attachmenturl=%2FFileStorage%2FA9306327EDD4428E9C918807DB95D79A-OP-13%2525202020.pdf
The analysis portion of the County's report is below.
ANALYSIS:
WPD’s project originally consisted of 27 wind turbine generators and interconnecting hydro transmission lines located in Athol and South Marysburgh. The project received its Renewable Energy Approval (“REA”) in 2015, but this was appealed to the Environmental review tribunal (ERT). On April 26, 2017 the ERT released its decision reducing the size of the project to 9 turbines, all north of Royal Road. The County and WPD entered into a Road Users Agreement (RUA) for the original project
as provided for in the REA. A RUA is utilized by the Municipality to ensure the other party (the permitted road user) is aware of the responsibilities and policies the Municipality has in place for movement on roads under their control. The RUA allows
the Municipality to impose specific conditions and reduce the Municipality’s liability. A proposed amendment to the RUA was proposed to Council in 2017 but was not completed. In July 2018, the Progressive Conservative government announced a
regulation cancelling the project, being the Wind Pines Wind Turbine Project Termination Act, 2018 (S.O. 2018, Chapter 10 Schedule 2).
The original RUA spoke to decommissioning of the wind turbines as planned for the distant future at their end of life. Due to the cancellation of the project, decommissioning is required to take place much earlier than expected. Staff and the Municipality’s solicitor are proposing a replacement of the current RUA with a new updated RUA speaking specifically to the decommissioning, related works that will be required and current conditions/specification related to such. The replacement of the
RUA creates an opportunity to close the previous RUA and create new terms in the new RUA for the Municipality to clearly define the decommissioning process and enables the update to remove irrelevant or outdated information.
The Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines (ENDM) approached Prince Edward County, seeking an amendment to the Road Use Agreement to permit the removal of turbine parts in two phases: to support portions of the infrastructure to be sold to a third party (EDF) and WPD to remove the remaining pieces of
infrastructure as part of their decommissioning of the entire project.
A third-party consultant engineer, EXP Services Inc., was retained on behalf of WPD and the Municipality jointly, to complete a road evaluation in June 2020. This visual evaluation of the road surface condition allowed for a post-commissioning evaluation
to compare with previous reports, while establishing a pre-decommissioning baseline for the haul routes. A comparison of the previous video footage (2017 and 2018) with 2020 conditions resulted in damages being noted for various roads. These roads
included: County Road 10, Murphy Road, Lighthall Road, Royal Road and County Road 49. The third-party evaluation only accounted for road surface damage, other damages and repairs required outside the road surface, such as ditching, signage,
roadside safety devices, intersection reinstatements, etc., were evaluated and assessed a repair value by Municipal staff and provided to WPD.
Conversations on the RUA have taken place over the last several weeks between County staff, the Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines (ENDM), the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) and WPD regarding the RUA. All
parties are in favour of the replacement RUA to outline additional terms relating to the decommissioning taking place earlier than expected. Key features of the new RUA include:
• The same haul route will be utilized for decommissioning that was used for entry.
• The RUA will be updated to remove roads that were associated with the 27 turbine project to only focus on those roads actually utilized for the 9 turbine project. These roads were: County Road 49, County Road 6, County Road 5, County Road 34, County Road 4, Talbot Street, Lake Street, County Road 10, County Road 13, Murphy Road, Royal Road, Maypul Lane Road, Bond Road,
Johnston Road, County Road 24, Lighthall Road, Crowes Road and Old Milford Road.
• As the decommissioning route will utilize the same roadways, there will be no major repairs to the road allowances at this time. The current damages will be included in the final damage total following the post-decommissioning assessment for repair which will be compared to the road assessment complete in 2020 for a pre-decommissioning baseline.
• The road assessment and assessment of damages will be completed by a third-party engineering consultant. The scope and terms of reference for the contract with the consultant will be mutually agreed upon by WPD and the Municipality. Following an agreement on the final damage total, WPD will pay the Municipality for the cost of damage to the road allowances. These
damages include the roadway (surface and base) as well as all related damages in the road allowance, including but not limited to: signage, ditches, landscaping, trees, swales, roadside safety devices, etc. The Municipality will use the funds collected for damage to implement repairs during appropriate times, such as in coordination with other work unrelated to the WPD project, to
utilize contractors and work forces efficiently.
• An updated letter of credit requirement of $1,260,000.00 to reflect the decrease of scope of work from 27 turbines to 9 turbines as this also affected the number of roads utilized by the project, therefore decreasing the amount of damage that could occur. The letter of credit will also be based on the damage to date plus an estimate related to additional damage that may occur. The
letter of credit will be held until WPD supplies the Municipality with the funds associated to the repair assessment.
• Specify that WPD abandon any installed conduit in place for assumption by the Municipality. This may allow for future use and will minimize disturbance in these areas again that would be required for the removal of the conduit.
• The haul route details and workplan will be appended to the replacement RUA. Any deviation from what is included in the document will require an amendment to the RUA.
• As some turbine components are being sold to another wind farm company for re-use, the replacement RUA will specifically state that this company will be considered a sub-contractor of WPD and all damages/liabilities for this work will be borne by WPD.
• WPD will remain responsible for maintenance and emergency repairs of the roadways within the haul route during decommissioning and will be responsible for the costs associated with such.
• EDF will be considered a sub-contractor of WPD for the purposes of the RUA and WPD will take full responsibility for work/damage by EDF. The amended RUA agreement will be established to protect the Municipality’s road allowances and the assets within them. The RUA does not govern or apply to any work on or related to private properties as the Municipality is not involved in these
matters. The work on or related to private properties is dealt with by the Province of Ontario, WPD and the private property owners. The private property decommissioning not involved in the Municipality’s RUA includes but is not limited to: the transformer substation, private property land and vegetation reinstatement.
ENDM, IESO and WPD are requesting decommissioning work being started as soon as possible. Staff supports this request as this should result in the heavy loads being moved this fall and early winter. This will assist with avoiding heavy loads during
spring thaw when roads are more susceptible to damage.
