9 minute read
Interview: BC Hydro
SMART POWER FOR
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Sustainable Business Magazine speaks to Maureen Daschuk, Senior VicePresident of Integrated Planning at BC Hydro, about the electrification of industry, climate resiliency, and working with First Nations communities.
The BC Hydro and Power Authority (BC
Hydro) is a Canadian electric utility, serving over 4 million customers in the province of British Columbia. Formed in 1961 when the provincial government merged the BC Electric Company with the BC Power Commission, BC Hydro today serves 95% of the population of British Columbia, handling the generation, transmission, and distribution of energy. Nearly 98% of the electricity BC Hydro’s generates is from clean, renewable sources.
“We’re very fortunate compared to other utilities,” explains Maureen Daschuk, Senior Vice-President of Integrated Planning at BC Hydro. “British Columba is a beautiful place, well-endowed with the natural beauty of the rivers and mountains. This also creates amazing opportunities for hydroelectric energy
RESIDENTIAL COMMERCIAL
production. Where other utilities are thinking about how they can move off of coal or oil and onto clean sources, we’re already in an enviable position.”
LOW-CARBON LNG
On a global level, energy production is the single largest source of carbon dioxide emissions. For most countries and municipalities around the world, the lowest-hanging fruit for reducing greenhouse gas emissions is to replace fossil fuel-based energy generation with renewable energy production in one form or another. But what’s the next step when a utility is already generating almost all its energy from renewable sources?
For BC Hydro, the next step is to support the electrification of other sectors. BC Hydro has three key target areas for electrification: Industrial processes, transportation, and heating. “The single most exciting opportunity in our view is the electrification of industrial processes,” says Ms. Daschuk. “In the northeast of British Columbia, there is a lot of natural gas production taking place. We believe there is a great partnership available between electricity and natural gas, where we can help produce the lowest-carbon-intensity natural gas in the world. If we can
INDUSTRIAL
help other countries who are using other high-carbon-intensity fuels and get them to switch to a LNG product that is produced with our low-emissions electricity then we think we can have a real benefit, not only in British Columbia but globally.”
Currently, BC Hydro is working on the Peace Region Electricity Supply (PRES) project, a transmission project which will bring energy from a newly-built hydroelectric dam, the Site C Dam, to local natural gas companies. “We are working with a number of the natural gas companies to use electricity from Site C to run their operations instead of burning their own product,” says Ms. Daschuk. “If they use electricity, they can produce a lower-carbon-intensity final product. LNG Canada has made a decision to invest in an LNG processing plant in the Kitimat area on the West Coast of British Columbia. That is going to be producing very low-carbon-intensive LNG that will be used for the export market in places like China. The PRES project is expected to reduce 2.6 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year from our customers, who will be using electricity instead of fossil fuels. So it’s a very exciting opportunity for us, and it’s very exciting for British Columbia.”
NATURAL CHALLENGES
The extraordinary natural environment of British Columbia is a boon to BC Hydro, but it brings with it challenges as well. Most of BC Hydro’s generation takes place at strategic points along the rivers, far away from most of their customer base. Furthermore, two-thirds of the land area of the province is forested. “This means, when we’re getting that power to our customers, we’re going across land that is largely mountainous and tree-covered,” says Ms. Daschuk. “We have about 86,000 kilometers of power lines going across our province – enough to circle the globe. We have three times more trees per kilometer of power line than any other utility in North America, which necessitates a strong vegetation management program. In 2019, half of our outages were caused by bad weather and trees. And because BC is a very large province, we’ve got a lot of distance between our customers. On average, there are 60 meters of line to get to the average customer in a rural area, or 14 meters in a populated area.”
As climate change continues to impact weather conditions, a resilient grid is all the most important for BC Hydro. “We rely on the water to produce our electricity, so if there is a drought, or if there are floods, that affects our ability to produce power,” says Ms. Daschuk. “We operate 30 generating stations across the province, and we have long transmission and distribution lines. We’re also on the coast near the ocean, so building a system which is reliable is essential. One of the things we’re doing is increasing our ability to detect when there’s an outage. We have meteorologists on staff, to help us understand the weather and how it’s going to impact us. We’re also taking a hard look at where we put our assets. We’re mapping our province to see where the fire risks and flood plains are, and implementing different materials and design standards. We have a lot of rivers in British Columbia, and where we used to put the transmission towers close to the edge of
the river, we’re now moving them back in case they change their course in heavy weather or top their banks. Where you put an asset can be as important as what materials you use. We also invest about $50 million per year in cutting down trees around our system, creating natural fire breaks. Put together, this will support building a resilient system that will withstand some of the challenges of climate change.”
In December 2018, the worst storm in the history of BC Hydro put the reliability of their systems to the test. “750,000 customers lost power during the storm,” says Ms. Daschuk. “We lost about 86,000 meters of our lines from wind damage to our power poles, and had to respond in a very quick and efficient manner. Within 24 hours, 73% of those customers who were without power had it returned. That’s 550,000 customers who were restored within 24 hours, and 86% within 48 hours. We’re very proud of our ability to respond quickly to any problems.”
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND PARTNERSHIPS
BC Hydro works hard to facilitate and maintain good-quality relationships with different First Nations communities across
the province. The company received gold certification in the Progressive Aboriginal Relations (PAR) program, a program run by the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business. “There are only 17 companies in Canada that have this status, and we are the only Canadian utility to be certified gold,” says Ms. Daschuk. “It’s now the ninth year that we have been at gold level. British Columbia has more than 200 First Nations communities, and we have a very strong focus on hiring indigenous employees. Furthermore, in 2018 we awarded $123 million in contracts to indigenous businesses, and on the Site C project we have $200 million in contracts going to aboriginal businesses. We also give out scholarships and bursaries for indigenous students, and we have a Statement of Indigenous Principles. For us, it’s not enough just to provide clean, reliable electricity to our customers. We have to do it in a way that incorporates our indigenous communities and all of our stakeholders. We recently refurbished one of our very oldest dams, the Ruskin Dam, which was originally built in the 1930s. We worked very closely with the Kwantlen First Nation, who we have a strong relationship with, and they provided us with artwork that is now on the rebuilt dam – it’s a really beautiful visual.”
Whenever any new project comes forward for BC Hydro’s approval, that project is subjected to a structured process to ensure it is environmentally and socially responsible. “The project has to identify any environmental issues and concerns, any social issues, as well as the requirements of our key stakeholders, and what kind of First Nation consultation must be done,” says Ms. Daschuk. “I sit on a gate review board, which means that the project managers have to come and present to me and other leaders
MAUREEN DASCHUK SENIOR VICE-PRESIDENT OF INTEGRATED PLANNING
and executive team members. We have a process of ensuring that appropriate inclu- sion of environmental and social responsibility has been met. If they can’t prove that to us, they do not get to go to the next level in the project development process.”
NEW FRONTIERS
Today, BC Hydro is working on their integrat- ed resource plan, anticipating what will be required from the electricity system in British Columbia over the next thirty years. “I’m very excited about the future of electricity and the ability of our clean power to remove carbon from the economy,” says Ms. Daschuk. “We’re excited about fuel switching in the transportation sector. British Columbia is leading in Canada for the most electric vehi- cles and the highest participation per capita for purchases of electric vehicles. We are predicting 400,000 electric vehicles in British Columbia by 2030. BC Hydro is also working with the support of Metro Vancouver on the electrification of the ports and the airport. We believe that there is more opportunity to electrify transportation than just passenger vehicles. There’s ships and planes, and we are also working with transit groups across the province to see what the opportunities are to switch buses. Industrial processes and transportation are our two primary focuses. We’re also working with the government of British Columbia on our third element, heating, which is in an earlier stage. But we are looking at how we can incorporate heat pumps to try and encourage more people to switch from fossil fuel heating to electricity. We’re trying to promote clean growth. A lot of jurisdictions want economic growth and economic development, but in British Columbia, it’s important that economic growth is also clean and sustainable.” c
