The more time I spend reviewing BC Hydro, the more I am reminded of the famous line spoken by a minor character in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
BC Hydro released its Second Quarter report for Fiscal Year 2016. Domestic consumption (residential, commercial and industrial) is down 2% compared to the same period of the year prior and the twelve months ended March 2016 may show the lowest level of consumption by homeowners and businesses in British Columbia since 1998.
NDP MLA Gary Holman says this information:
Reinforces need for the BC Utilities Commission to examine dubious business case for Site C.
Regardless of reduced demand, British Columbia continues construction at Site C and purchases more from Independent Power Producers. The power strategy of Christy Clark’s government is impossible for honest people to understand.
These charts are prepared from BC Hydro reports:
Compared to prior year, #BCHydro residential, commercial & industrial power consumption down 1.5% in Q1 2016 and 2.0% in Q2. #bcpoli
— Norm Farrell (@Norm_Farrell) December 9, 2015
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Despite drop in domestic consumption, cost of #BCHydro purchases from independent power producers up 28%. #bcpoli #PayToPlay
— Norm Farrell (@Norm_Farrell) December 9, 2015
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Despite drop in domestic consumption, #BCHydro paid independent power producers $120M more in first half of FY 2016. #bcpoli #PayToPlay
— Norm Farrell (@Norm_Farrell) December 9, 2015
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#BCHydro paying IPPs 8.4¢ KWh, selling power to industry at 5.6¢ KWh. How to lose money and gain friends. #bcpoli #PayToPlay
— Norm Farrell (@Norm_Farrell) December 9, 2015
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As @jjhorgan correctly says, the cheapest source of power for new demand is power we don’t waste by inefficiency. #bcpoli #bchydro @dafast
— Norm Farrell (@Norm_Farrell) December 11, 2015
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How many pallets to load $56.2 billion that BC Hydro obliged to pay private power producers, as of Mar/15? #bcpoli pic.twitter.com/BGSE18rC7N
— Norm Farrell (@Norm_Farrell) December 12, 2015
Categories: BC Hydro
in-sights.ca 
“Something is rotten in the state of BC” – You made me look it up Norm – ha , Merv
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I was bewildered until Merv cleared it up! At first I blamed it on ineptitude instead of corruption. Should have known better.
Norm. How can they release data for 2016? Should that be 2015?
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I'm not sure but I think part of the reason is the slowdown with pulp mills, which use a lot of electricity.
Also, the hydro rates, especially when you get onto tier 2 on the billing, is getting quite high, and will continue to get higher. When rates get higher, people and businesses will look at ways to cut electricity usage. LED bulbs etc.
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yup rotten all right…..no end in sight for approving even more IPP's on top of Site C
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ha…..when submitting my last comment I had to prove to the machine I was not a robot….how ironic it asked me to pick out pictures of waterfalls…once they are all diverted into IPP penstocks that's all we'll have…pictures
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If the oil industry saw such a graph (as your first one) for fuel consumption, surely no company would say, “Let's build a new refinery!”… unless they had an inside track on public funds.
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Government operates on a fiscal year ending in March. Therefore the year to date portion of the Quarter 2 report of Fiscal Year 2016 is from April 1, 2015 to September 30, 2015.
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Unless the CEO of that company was handpicked to do so.
As has been noted before, after what was surely an exhaustive search for the most qualified candidate in all of North America to run a multi-billion dollar public utility, by pure coincidence a long-time public servant with credentials as Gordon Campbell’s faithful right hand woman turned out to be the most qualified to be CEO of BC Hydro. The fact that her husband is described by Christy Clark as “one of my oldest friends”, was the co-chair and manager of her leadership campaign and subsequently her chief of staff, was also complete coincidence and had nothing whatever to do with the appointment. The critical determinant was her extensive demonstrated experience in running a public utility.
In fact, she is so qualified that there is no longer any need to submit her multi-billion dollar projects to the Public Utilities Commission, as would be the case had Christy not had the foresight to install the right individual. We sure got lucky. Just ask the folks in the legislative press gallery. They know her well, and will undoubtedly vouch for her.
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In fact, the largest reduction in electricity use in the last few years is in the residential sector. It dropped 5.1% from FY 2014 to FY 2015. In the first six months of the current fiscal year, residential consumption is down a further 1.2%, for the same six month period, year over year.
Consumption by large industrial users was less in 2015 than in any year from 2004 to 2009.
Despite expansion of commercial and light industrial,
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Yes, there is much benefit to be gained from efficiency. Using LEDs and CFLs for lighting, our house uses less than 20% of what it did with incandescent bulbs.
Our furnace uses an ECPM fan mot, a brushless, permanent-magnet DC motor that reduced power consumption by the furnace about 75%.
John Horgan was absolutely correct when he talked about focusing on energy conservation as a way of meeting future needs. It is far cheaper than spending billions to build new generating capacity.
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as the cost of everything rises and wages don't rise as much or as fast, people start to economize. Lights get turned off, electrical heating gets turned down.
Now why Christy wants to go ahead with building Site C, that is easy, her friends and supporters want the contracts. If you're in charge you can build what you like, hire who you like and they can charge what they like. Then when you run for re-election, they contribute to your election campaing. its really easy as to why Christy wants Site C. it also will “hold” a lot of water which can be exported, used for fracking, but watch out if there is ever a big earthquake. the whole thing will come down and it will be case closed for a lot of land and people.
Power continues to be purchased from IPs because they have signed contracts during el gordo's time. Just another way to “reward” your “friends” so every body but the taxpayers get something.
the people of this province voted for el gordo and Christy. You get what you deserve.
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Legalized theft…we the taxpayer pay through the nose, either for development or through service charges, most likely both in the final analysis.
The corruption in this province runs very deep indeed….
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This information is a treasure trove of the old adage…”follow the money”, the evidence trail necessary for a future..”corruption” enquiry. Overpaying IPP's for the power, that obviously is being grossly overcharged for. One wonders where this money trail will lead. These contracts should be investigated and rescinded. “Legalized theft” is not what a serving government should be involved with, “in my humble opinion.”
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