MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY — County council approved a land use bylaw amendment regarding distributed energy resource (DER) projects approved by the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) within the municipality.
The move came by way of motion during the March 23 council meeting, which was held in person and on Zoom.
DER facilities are small power plants that use oil and gas facilities to generate electricity of 10 megawatts or less. They connect to local electrical distribution systems.
“We did approve that change and the largest reason being that a municipality really has no say over an AUC approval,” said Mountain View County Reeve Angela Aalbers.
“We know of other municipalities who have tried to go against or challenge the AUC approvals though the land and property rights tribunal and they have not been successful,” she said.
“Under the MGA (municipal government act), the AUC trumps any kind of municipal approval. This is our way of trying to work more with applicants and work more with industry in order to have a say into important development permit conditions that we think the private company would like to work with us,” she added.
“If we didn’t approve this, the AUC approval would just like move forward anyway because there is no municipal say.”
In January, the county received a development permit application for an Alberta Utilities Commission-approved DER facility.
The land use bylaw change amends the utility services, minor infrastructure section to include local electric power generation stations.
Specifically, the amendment accommodates Alberta Energy Regulator facilities within the existing definition of Utility Services, minor infrastructure to include DER facilities that received AUC approval prior to submission of applications.
It also adds utility services, minor infrastructure as a permitted use within agricultural and agricultural (2) districts, and moves the existing utilities services, minor infrastructure in the airport district from discretionary to permitted use.
The updated section reads in part, that an “application for development permit for utility services shall include a site plan, including the following information: articulate the steps taken to prove that the site location has the least impact on agricultural land; and the site boundary.”
Margaretha Bloem, director of planning, said public participation is part of the Alberta Utilities’ Commission approvals process for DERs.
Officials need technical details from each applicant requiring them to engage the surrounding landowners, make contact with the municipality, and provide all of the technical components depending on what is being proposed, including involving noise generation, she said.
