BC government announces $36 billion expansion of BC Hydro's electrical network

Rope access technician atop a wind turbine in northern British Columbia. (Patrick Lynch/supplied)

Just days after British Columbia broke its electrical usage record amidst unprecedented demand due to the record-breaking cold snap, the provincial government has green-lighted an expanded plan to improve BC Hydro’s electrical network.

Over the next 10 years. between the 2024/2025 and 2033/2034 fiscal years, BC Hydro will spend a total of $36 billion on its network, including $10 billion for infrastructure to support electrification and greenhouse gas reductions and over $5 billion to address load growth and increased customer connections. The remaining $21 billion will go towards the ongoing maintenance of existing infrastructure.

This represents an increase of about 50% from the previous capital plan totalling $24 billion.

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The investments will go towards projects such as building new high-voltage transmission lines and supporting infrastructure between Prince George and Terrace to help meet increased demand from industry in the north coast area, including mining, as well as building or expanding substations and installing new equipment to support new residential developments and the electrification of public transit bus networks in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island. As well, hydroelectric dams and generating facilities will be upgraded for improved safety, reliability, and efficiency.

These projects are expected to support 10,500 to 12,500 jobs on average annually.

Between 2024 and 2030, BC Hydro is expecting electricity demand will go up by 15% — propelled by population and economic growth, and the accelerating shift towards the electrification of building systems and the adoption of battery-electric vehicles.

“We must expand our electrical system like never before, to power industrial development, to power our homes and businesses, to power our future,” said Premier David Eby in a statement Tuesday. “Clean, affordable energy will help us meet that opportunity, while reducing pollution, securing good-paying jobs, and creating new opportunities for our growing economy.”

Chris O’Riley, president and CEO of BC Hydro, added, “Our electricity grid is already one of the cleanest in the world, and to meet the scale and pace of what’s required, we need to invest in our system and build for the future.”

In 2023, BC Hydro first announced it would need much more electricity supply much sooner than anticipated — even after accounting for the supply gained from the scheduled 2025 completion and operation of the $16-billion Site C hydroelectric dam, which will have an output capacity of 1,100 megawatts (MW) or enough power for the equivalent of 450,000 homes or 1.7 million battery-electric cars.

BC Hydro expects it will need to buy an additional 3,000 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity annually as early as 2028, which will be made possible by starting the procurement process in Spring 2024, with contracts awarded by Summer 2025 — focusing on the construction of new clean, renewable sources, such as wind and solar. For comparison, Site C’s six generating units will produce about 5,100 GWh annually.

site c dam bc hydro construction progress july 2023

July 2023 construction progress on the Site C dam. (BC Hydro)

Rope access technician atop a wind turbine in northern British Columbia. (Patrick Lynch/supplied)

Not only will there be an accelerating demand for electricity moving forward, but there will be a growing reliance on just a single source of energy, which increases the urgency for BC Hydro to create a more resilient network with redundancy. According to BC Hydro, over the past weekend, its peak hourly electricity demand reached a record high of 11,300 MW, and it was also able to assist Alberta in its dire plea to send over more electricity.

BC’s other major energy utility is FortisBC, which is typically only associated with its gas system, of which it has 1.04 million customers, as of 2019. But FortisBC also has a substantial electricity business, which has 179,000 customers. In contrast, BC Hydro has two million customers for its single business of electricity.

According to FortisBC, its gas system delivered double the energy BC Hydro did on the recent record-breaking day, with 11,300 MW delivered by BC Hydro and 21,763 MW delivered by FortisBC. The gas utility’s output was 400 MW more than on December 22, 2022, when similar temperatures were experienced, leading to the previous record for demand.

FortisBC suggests there would not be enough energy in the province if the gas system were to be suddenly removed from the equation, with the gas system working in tandem with the electric system to meet high demands. They assert BC Hydro’s call for more power later this decade “underscores” the need to increase the use of renewable natural gas, such as gas sourced from the methane in landfills, and hydrogen.

“Customers rely on both the gas and electric systems working together to deliver the energy they need to keep their homes and businesses safe and warm during times like this. To meet peak demand, an energy system either needs to have the ability to produce enough energy to meet it or have the ability to store energy to use when energy needs increase,” Doug Slater, vice-president of Indigenous Relations and regulatory affairs at FortisBC, told Daily Hive Urbanized.

“An advantage of the gas system is its ability to easily and affordably store large volumes of energy, whether in dedicated gas storage, such as Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facilities or even within the lines themselves.”

Meanwhile, in Alberta, the province’s utiliy is looking into building nuclear power plants for its long-term energy needs, specifically small modular nuclear reactors in partnership with Ontario Power Generation. Currently, the closest nuclear power plant to Western Canada is the Columbia Nuclear Generating Station, located in southern Washington state.

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