Published July 8, 2020
Watch our fourth episode of Urban Green Live, hosted by Urban Green Council CEO John Mandyck. This livestreamed interview series features industry experts from NYC and around the globe to talk about solutions for a zero-carbon future.
On July 8, 2020, we were delighted to welcome Sophie Brochu, President and CEO of Hydro-Québec, to the program. In this episode, John and Sophie discussed how hydropower can reduce New York City’s carbon emissions. They explored questions about the benefits and opportunities of tapping Québec’s hydro for low-carbon power, the scope of infrastructure needed to maintain continuous power generation, and the impact on local communities.
Key Takeaways
Hydro-Québec, a major hydropower producer, aims to increase its supply to NYC.
-> Hydropower involves converting water flow from dams into electricity, with Hydro-Québec leveraging both run-of-the-river and reservoir dams, the latter acting as large batteries to modulate power supply.
-> Currently, 5% of New York State’s power comes from Hydro-Québec.
Hydro-Québec focuses on optimizing profit and ensuring long-term benefits
-> They emphasize the integration of renewable energy into broader energy systems to support a zero-carbon future.
-> The company also addresses environmental concerns, as well as emphasizes respectful and beneficial partnerships with Indigenous communities.
Speakers
John Mandyck
Chief Executive Officer
Sophie Brochu
President and CEO Hydro Québec
Sophie Brochu took office as President and Chief Executive Officer of Hydro-Québec in April 2020. Brochu has over 30 years of experience in the energy sector. She began her career in 1987 as a financial analyst with Société québécoise d’initiatives pétrolières, a Québec government corporation responsible for developing the natural gas network in the province. In 1997, she joined Énergir as Vice President, Business Development, and subsequently went on to head other departments. In 2007, she became Énergir’s President and Chief Executive Officer, a position she held until the end of 2019. Under her guidance, the Québec natural gas distributor added renewable natural gas to its supply portfolio and became an important player in the wind and solar energy spaces, in both Canada and the U.S.
Q&A
John Mandyck: How much does weather affect electrical capacity and production?
Sophie Brochu: As you can imagine the scientific community across the world, and especially in Québec, has been following weather patterns for many years. We see that we have more and more water as we see climate change. To ensure that we never come close to issues of reliability with the people we serve, we keep a very high margin. We could stretch ourselves to make more profit, but we don’t because we want to make sure that we are reliable at the end of the day.
John Mandyck: Is the Champlain-Hudson line also permitted on the Canadian side of the border?
Sophie Brochu: No, we are going through this process right now. We are confident that we will cross the line. We need to do it intelligently, with fairness and all that. We have started the work, and we are embarking on this.
John Mandyck: What is the biggest obstacle in the way of getting Québec’s hydropower to New York City?
Sophie Brochu: The biggest challenge is for the people to organize and gather consumption. At one point somebody needs to make a decision, if the U.S. does not gather the demand, the hydropower will be served somewhere else. It is our hope to serve it to New York, so I think that events like this make it understandable to the public. We need to gather and figure out how do we have the grid moving forward?
John Mandyck: How do you deal with hydroelectricity’s negative reputation generally? Habitat destruction, displacement of people, altered hydrology, etc.
Sophie Brochu: There is a lot of myth over there. Hydroelectricity has never displaced people. I am convinced that the industry’s players often use the wrong approach to address the needs and requirements of our society. The wrong approach is that we want to protect our energy files against whatever. We view other energy files as competitors. I am of the contrary opinion.
John Mandyck: Does Hydro-Québec’s power capacity match its dam capacity? Is there significant dam capacity to which generation could be added?
Sophie Brochu: Yes, the latent potential of that capacity can be increased. If you reason it from a whole system perspective, the traditional way of a utility was to build infrastructure and then increase the base rate and make more money. This is not the way we reason. The way we’re reasoning is to work on the demand side and complement with other renewable energy sources.
John Mandyck: Are the new jobs and skills needed for workers in the Canadian power generation sector?
Sophie Brochu: We need all the skills. I would say that traditional skills are still very important, but there is no doubt that at the other end of the spectrum, innovation capacity is affirmatively important. Hydro-Québec has innovated a lot through the years.
We have a research center, and we invest $100 million a year into research. Many research centers across North America just disappeared, but investing in research allows us to think about the future.
I would also say that for workers today, whatever you do, you need to have soft skills. We need to have engineers who can build bridges, but you need to have people who have the skill to build bridges between the people. We need anthropologists, we need historians, we need to understand the indigenous communities. We need to move away from a strictly engineered perspective.
John Mandyck: The energy sector has a largely male demographic. As the first female CEO, do you see substantially more opportunities for women, people of color, and/or indigenous people more now than in the past? What change are you seeing moving forward?
Sophie Brochu: Absolutely. One of the first things I’ve done was make sure the people who report to me would be more females. We’re not equal yet, we’re five out of 12. We also have a lot of room to have more people from ethnic and sexual diversity, from all backgrounds. We need to make sure that we have women and diversity in planning for the future and developing the plans.
I tell my people, if you’re planning a project or strategy plan, if the thought process does not include the parity of gender, then it’s not a plan. It’s an idea. It will be a plan when you will have diversity in creating the plan.
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