The rate of return is now "quite low," Hydro officials told the PUB on Monday. Hydro officials didn't have the new profit margin estimate at hand, but promised to submit it to the board.

One of the arguments for building Wuskwatim was that U.S. customers were expected to pay a premium for "green" electricity. However, PUB lawer Bob Peters pointed out a new coal-fired electricity plant is being built in South Dakota that will generate much more electricity than Wuskwatim. "The desire to have green electricity appears to be not coming through as assumed, as evidenced by the fact that there's going to be some thermal generation competing with the Wuskwatim output."

Wuskwatim will eventually be needed to meet Manitoba's power projected demands, especially industrial power demands that have been on the rise. It's slated to be up and running by 2012.