In February 2009 budget documents, the Government of British Columbia told citizens that “demand for electricity continues to grow rapidly.” The statement was untrue in 2009 and remains untrue in 2023.

In 2011, BC Hydro said it needed $6 billion dollars “to upgrade dams and other facilities to meet the growing demand for electricity.” The utility said the plan would cost homeowners $180 more a year on average. Since the company made those statements, BC Hydro assets have grown by $28 billion. That suggests a cost to homeowners of $840 more a year on average, a significant amount for many consumers of electricity.

In 2013, BC Hydro’s Integrated Resource Plan said:

B.C.’s demand for electricity in 20 years is forecast to be 23,000 gigawatt hours per year (GWh/yr) greater than it is today – an increase of 40 per cent over what British Columbians currently use…

Ten years later (2013 to 2023), BC Hydro sales to domestic customers (residential, commercial, and industrial) had grown 2.6 GWh, or 5 percent. But purchases from independent power producers (IPPs) in that decade grew by 4.7 GWh (44%). In financial terms, payments to IPPs increased by $661 million (87%).

In twenty years (2003 to 2023), sales to the utility’s domestic consumers increased 5.3 GWh (11%) but purchases from IPPs rose 10.4 GWh (205%). Payments to IPPs were $1.13 billion higher in fiscal year 2023 than in 2003. Paying high prices to IPPs meant higher prices to consumers.

BC Hydro’s own numbers show that increased demand by domestic consumers over 20 years was well under one-third of what the company predicted, and was double covered by the utility’s purchases from private power producers. But those facts did not stop the empire-builders from expanding the empire and taking money out of our pockets.

While it was issuing long-term, inflation-protected contracts worth tens of billions of dollars to private power producers, BC Hydro claimed, “Throughout BC history, the demand for power and energy has increased exponentially.” It should be said that an exponential increase means something is growing quickly by large amounts. Demand increases averaging half of one percent per year are far from exponential growth.

One interesting fact: BC Hydro’s first quarter report for the fiscal year 2023-24 showed sales to domestic consumers were exactly the same as in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2007-08, despite population growing by 25 percent. Customers paid $545 million more (+85%) for that electricity.

Comparing the entire fiscal year 2023 to fiscal year 2008, BC Hydro’s sales to residential, commercial, and industrial customers increased only 1.7%. But we paid $2.1 billion (75%) more.

Of course, assets employed to deliver that same volume of electricity have changed more than slightly. So have purchases of private power.