It is time to get real. You are pursuing outdated policies that cause significant damage to the environment and the economy of British Columbia.
Citizens expect competency in management of this crown corporation and you must be accountable. Start by resigning and returning the sums paid you by the utility in the last year.
A fact has been made clear by the company’s records of domestic consumption by residents and businesses of British Columbia: DEMAND IS NOT GROWING.
Yet David Conway, your official spokesman recently said:
…we are forecasting demand to increase by almost 40 per cent over the next 20 years…
Without Site C, B.C. is forecast to have an eight per cent capacity deficit and a two per cent energy deficit within 10 years — equivalent to the power needs of 100,000 homes.
Numbers like these have been offered to the public for more than a decade and during that time, electricity sold to your residential, commercial and industrial customers has reduced in quantity.
- In 1994, BC Hydro said demand for electricity in BC would grow 52% in ten years. It grew only 18%.
- In 2005, BC Hydro said demand would grow 20% by 2016. It grew 0%.
- In 2012, BC Hydro said demand would grow 9% over four years. It dropped 1%.
Despite that record of dishonest forecasting, you are proceeding carelessly with Site C construction.
And, you’ve committed to private power we don’t need and paid a multiple of its value in the marketplace.
Buying private power resulted in unnecessary environmental damages.
Excessive power supply meant bypassing the company’s generating facilities and/or dumping surplus power outside BC at a fraction of the price paid to independent power producers (IPPs).
The losses are huge and you have a fiduciary responsibility to British Columbians. If you continue on the same path, directors must expect to be held personally liable.
By the way, you shouldn’t pretend to be unaware of the declines in electricity sold by utilities. The U.S. Department of Energy records show that our traditional export customers also have growing surpluses and The Economist reports this about demand elsewhere:
In rich countries governments have imposed renewables on electricity systems that had no need for new capacity, because demand is in decline.
Note that last phrase? Demand is in decline.
The Economist continues:
[Bruce Huber] likens the upheaval facing utilities to that seen in the telecoms industry a generation ago, when a business model based on charging per second for long-distance calls was replaced by one involving the sale of services such as always-on broadband. This is bad news for the vertically integrated giants that grew up in the age of centralised generating by the gigawatt.
…dozens of tech-like firms that are “nibbling” away at bits of utilities’ traditional business models through innovations in grid optimisation and smart-home management systems. …technological disruptions doom the traditional utility.
Technology has changed. Dams are not benign and other sources of power are less expensive.
Meaningful conservation is cheaper still.
Categories: BC Hydro, Independent Power Producers (IPP)
in-sights.ca 
words you don’t see in BC media- Keeyask and Muskrat Falls?blackout?
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Hey Rafe, why don’t you tell us what you really think?! ; )
But alas the mismanagement of Hydro is repeated in many other areas, eg ICBC, lobbyist and donor rules, Massey Bridge, Port Mann Bridge, Whistler highway . . .
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The totality of the Hydro mess goes back to Gordon Campbell and is difficult to believe to believe and impossible to accept. We must surely note that there has been no remotley plausible explation from the Government as to how they could bankrupt this former first class operation, especially in light of the fact there has been no depression ir outside calamity. Thanks to Norm, Harry Swain and many others the causes have been exposed as grossly hegligent management and huge handouts to Liberal cronies.
How long before Attorney-General Suzanne Anton stops being a parish pump politician and conducts herselt as Her Majesty’s Chief Law Officer and does her duty even though most outsiders involved are Liberal leeches who dutifully kick back a healthy portion of their ill gotten gains to Christy’s ubiquitous bagmen from whom Ms Anton no doubt expects her share of campaign funds!
Her sheer cowardice and political coverup is disgracefut to her and her office.
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David Conway (BC Hydro spokesperson) If it’s any help to you, I have long ago given up on any expectation of competency from your organization (what an oxymoron!). And if it’s of any help with your energy forecasting I won’t be contributing to your 40% increase over the next 20 years.
While I do anticipate your rates to increase by 40% (or more) over the next 20 years my provider will be solar and I expect his rates to go down over the next 20 years. I do hope you will be in a position to honour your commitment to purchase my surplus power for 9.99 cents per kWhr. I’m guessing that you have a huge IPP budget?
Good luck with your dam! Hope your ‘cup’ doth not runneth over.
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What was true in Germany in the 30’s, is true today in BC.
“If you tell a BC Hydro lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The BC Hydro lie can be maintained only for such time as the province can shield the people from the political, economic and/or environmental consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the province to use all of its powers of the corrupt mainstream media to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the BC Hydro lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the province, the BC Liberals and Christi Clark.”
No apologies to Herr Goebbels as Postmedia and the BC Liberal cabal have read your words well.
The Vancouver Sun is a great keyboard on which the Liberals and their vile henchmen play continually and “Dead Dog 98” is used like radio Moscow, airing fake news and alternative facts.
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An org of energy… a famine of demand.
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In the real business world people that make repetitive, inexcusable errors in judgement that cost shareholders millions or billions pay with the loss of their employment. That is exactly what should happen to the BC Liberal government. I’m being polite. If in the real business world the magnitude of those decisions mirrored those of Christy Clark, criminal charges being laid would be a definite option, and rightfully so. Taxpayers are shareholders.
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I do not understand why this information has not been reviewed by the Vancouver Sun and Province newsroom, by Global TV, CTV, CBC or other reporting groups.
If the information here is correct, the whole province should know.
If it is incorrect, the proof should be offered and Norm discredited.
(I looked at annual reports of B.C. Hydro and tested some numbers but I found no error.)
This leads to the conclusion that Insights is reporting factually and most regular media intend to ignore information uncovered by bloggers, which is strange because they’re obviously not competing for advertising.
Maybe it’s because media would have to explain why they missed this news. Maybe it because they don’t want the news reported.
We readers should be asking for answers.
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cc: Christy Clark
Bill Bennett
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Hugh, and the Revelstoke dam is about 1/2 the distance of Site C from the Lower Mainland, meaning substantial savings on line-loss during transmission.
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http://vancouversun.com/business/energy/b-c-hydro-seeks-provinces-approval-for-dam-project-near-revelstoke
“The company (BC Hydro) wants to add a sixth turbine at the existing powerhouse at the Revelstoke Dam and says in a statement that the new unit would add 500 megawatts of capacity to the province’s electricity system.”
$582 million for 500 MW, versus $9,000 million for Site C with:
“Designs call for an estimated peak capacity of approximately 1,100 MW, and average output of 680 MW”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Site_C_dam
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