BC Hydro has announced that SNC-Lavalin Inc has been selected as the preferred contractor for the John Hart Generating Station Replacement Project in British Columbia, Canada.

InPower BC, a special purpose project company in which SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. has 100 per cent interest, has signed an agreement with BC Hydro to design, build, partially finance and rehabilitate the John Hart Generating Station Replacement Facility under a 20-year contract. BC Hydro will continue to operate the facility.

On 6 July 2012, Elk Falls Energy Partners, Salmon River Hydro Partners and SNC-Lavalin had been shortlisted.

A joint venture of Aecon (60%) and SNC-Lavalin Constructors Pacific Inc. (40%) will build the project.

BC Hydro will provide 60% of the CAD$700 million construction capital cost, with SNC-Lavalin Capital Inc. providing the balance through invested equity and arranged debt financing, including a short-term construction loan by Alberta Treasury Branches and a long-term widely distributed private placement underwritten by Scotia Capital and National Bank Financial. The project financing is non-recourse to SNC-Lavalin.

The construction will commence in April 2014. The project is scheduled to be complete by the end of 2018 and the total completion of the new facility and decommissioning of the existing one will run into 2019.

The project will construct a replacement water intake at the John Hart Spillway Dam, replace the three 1.8km long penstocks with a 2.1km long tunnel, construct a replacement generating station beside the existing station, and a new water bypass facility. The existing station may continue to operate during the construction phase, and then transfer operations during the commissioning period to the new facility.