Lew Edwardson prepared the following item after the webinar prepared by Canada West Forum. Lew is a keen observer of current events and always articulate and accurate when expressing his views.
The Powering the Future forum provided a wealth of useful and timely information, and anyone who hasn’t watched it yet should schedule some time to do so. But be warned; like all worthwhile forums, it will provoke some debate and raise additional questions.
Broadly speaking, Jae Mather argues with examples that British Columbia is at least a decade behind in adopting cutting-edge technology.
Markham Hislop asserts that BC Hydro is focusing on the wrong side of the supply/demand relationship with inadequate direction from the provincial government.
Glen Clark maintains that “we are doing frigging fantastic in British Columbia”; BC Hydro is where it should be, and ratepayers and critics alike should be thrilled with the current situation.
Moderator Damien Gillis did a very good job of directing questions and allocating equal time while displaying his own credentials on the subject matter.
In terms of questions that might jump out at some viewers, perhaps one of the more obvious was when Glen Clark reminded us that BC Hydro, with a couple of exceptions, has a legal obligation to provide service to anyone who shows up and asks for it. As he puts it, that has been true since he’s been alive. But what about those exceptions?
They are recent and significant. While it is true that sections 28 through 30 of the Utilities Commission Act have historically required any public utility to provide service to anyone located within 200 metres of its supply line upon request, the Energy Statutes Amendment Act, 2025 (Bill 31), was narrowly passed in the Legislature in November 2025 with the Speaker of the House voting to break a vote tie. The key amendment to the Utilities
Provision of electricity service for listed purposes
21.1 (1) In this section, “listed purpose” means a purpose listed in subsection (2).
(2) The Lieutenant Governor in Council may make regulations respecting the provision by a public utility of electricity service for any of the following purposes:
(a) to mine cryptocurrency;
(b) to store or process electronic data, including electronic data used for artificial intelligence;
(c) to produce hydrogen for use outside Canada.
The government described the changes and the rationale thusly:
A new approach ensures electricity access brings greatest benefit to British Columbia
Economic growth and electrification are driving an unprecedented volume of requests to BC Hydro for electricity service from mining, upstream natural gas and LNG sectors, and from emerging energy-intensive industries including artificial intelligence (AI) and data centres. BC Hydro currently has industrial projects in its connection queue for almost 6,800 megawatts (MW), more than six times the total capacity of the Site C hydroelectric project.
Under its existing interconnection policy, BC Hydro is obligated to provide electricity service to potential customers on a first-come, first-served basis, without consideration of what the end use of the power or resultant economic benefit will be. This policy did not contemplate the speed of innovation in the tech sector or emerging energy resources, such as hydrogen production. The rapid scalability of these industries in an electricity system with limited resources requires government intervention and action.
There is a need for the Province to modernize BC Hydro’s interconnection process to prioritize industries such as the natural-resource sector that have long been the backbone of B.C.’s economy and that contribute meaningfully to jobs, long-term economic development and public revenues, while also supporting the expansion of new and emerging industries.
Maximizing the benefits for British Columbia
The energy statutes amendment act, if passed, will amend the Utilities Commission Act and enable government to make regulations to establish a new B.C. electricity allocation framework for industry that:
• prioritizes electricity connections for natural-resource projects that provide the most benefits to people in B.C.; and,
• puts limits on the power available for data centres and AI, and enables hydrogen production for export in a paced way, prioritizing the most beneficial of such projects.
Building out the natural resource sector
The new framework will not impact electricity service or the BC Hydro interconnection process for natural-resource projects, including mining and critical minerals, oil and gas, LNG, manufacturing, forestry and hydrogen for domestic consumption.
• BC Hydro will continue to bring on energy and capacity resources to match demand;
• there will be no limit, or allowance on the amount of power available to these industries; and,
• they will pay the standard industrial rate for electricity.
Supporting emerging sectors
The growth of emerging industries including data centres, AI, and hydrogen for export will continue to be enabled. However, these projects generally provide fewer jobs and revenues for the province than natural-resource projects, while consuming large volumes of power.
To manage this growth responsibly and balance critical energy needs throughout B.C., the Province will introduce changes through regulation that will prioritize electricity service to projects in emerging sectors that provide the greatest benefit for British Columbians, and do so at an appropriate pace.
BC Hydro will launch a competitive call for projects in early 2026 for a two-year period that allocates 300 megawatts (MW) for AI, 100 MW for data centres, and amounts for hydrogen exports that will be set at a later time, as market conditions warrant.
Projects that are applying to the process will be assessed to ensure alignment with B.C.’s economic objectives, such as jobs and benefit to provincial interests, while remaining within the total energy volumes allocated to these specific sectors.
Cryptocurrency mining will remain excluded from this process in line with existing regulations prohibiting new connections for cryptocurrency mining, due to its disproportionate energy consumption and limited economic benefit. New BC Hydro connections for cryptocurrency mining will be banned permanently.
Striking a balance
Data centres and AI can offer tremendous potential for innovation, information technology and data sovereignty, and AI adoption will continue to improve productivity and competitiveness for B.C. industies. However, their rapid expansion and high energy consumption require balanced, forward-looking planning.
A new B.C. electricity allocation framework will encourage investment in natural-resource industries that create well-paying jobs, avoid emissions and keep energy affordable for people in British Columbia. It will also support growth in emerging sectors by prioritizing the projects that deliver the greatest benefit to British Columbia, while ensuring B.C.’s overall energy needs are responsibly and sustainably met.
So, according to the BC government, there are unfulfilled requests for six times the total capacity of Site C lined up, and to satisfy them, rationing must be employed. The 2024 and 2025 Calls for Power, which would presumably close that gap, have obviously not begun to produce yet. They will come on stream between 2029 and 2033. Ratepayers might be forgiven for a bit of unease at this news, especially amid reports that BC Hydro has increasingly relied on imported power due to drought conditions in critical watersheds.
Abandoning the duty to serve principle that has existed for a lifetime in British Columbia in favor of one that demands a customer prove they deserve it is a drastic measure.
We have happily supplied unlimited power to natural resource extractors upon request, knowing full well that they use massive amounts of water and permanently damage the local and global environment. We not only provide the enabling power, but we also subsidize the provision. Why single out the new guys?
The issues surrounding data centre and AI energy use are not unique to British Columbia. They exist across the globe. But there is little doubt that the requests for data centre and AI requirements here would have been fulfilled anyway had the capacity existed. This indicates BC Hydro is running close to capacity. In which case should the province be directing BC Hydro to accelerate supply solutions in order that we are not caught short in the next unforeseen drought or technology advance?
Solutions such as large BC Hydro-owned offshore wind installations in the north, where the very favorable 70% factor is available, as discussed in the forum. Other countries use large offshore technology to great advantage. Why not BC and why not now?
Would it be outlandish to envision the natural resource energy requirements in the north being supplied by such
installations? What impact would that have on the North Coast Transmission Line?
Would mandating solar panels in new home construction help? Germany has achieved massive solar adoption despite having a cloudy climate that is often less sunny than Canada. Solar panels here are highly effective in cool climates, as they function more efficiently in cold, overcast conditions than in extreme heat. Why are we waiting when we need the energy?
These solutions are available, and the pros and cons will be explored in future forums coming soon.
Categories: Energy - Wind
in-sights.ca 
Mr. Edwardson,
Enjoyed your post on offshore wind potential.
Is East Coast Canada making progress?
Not when you compare what is proposed now with what was proposed more than 100 years ago.
Tides on the Bay of Fundy rise by nearly 52 feet. Could that energy be useful? For what?
Consider the Passamaquoddy project.
https://www.islandinstitute.org/working-waterfront/anatomy-of-a-failure-who-killed-quoddy/
Although small tidal mills existed throughout the coast of Maine starting in the 1600s, harnessing Passamaquoddy Bay was an enormous multi-dam venture with thousands of workers building it in the 1930s. It started as an idea hatched by the brilliant engineer Dexter Cooper who designed hydropower projects from the Mississippi to the Soviet Union. His bride was a summer resident of Campobello Island, Canada, just across the strait from Eastport.
Campobello was also a summer retreat for the Roosevelts of New York.
The Project envisioned
https://www.tidemillinstitute.org/quoddy-power-project-1920-1945/
By capturing the tides in the 110-square mile Passamaquoddy Bay—which has some of the highest tides in the world—you could produce enough electricity to power much of Maine. Construction of such a tidal power plant would create thousands of desperately needed jobs, and cheap electrical power would bring new industries and prosperity to the state.
That idea crystallized in the mind of Dexter Cooper in 1920 as he recuperated from surgery at his mother-in-law’s summer house overlooking the Bay. Cooper was a civil engineer who helped to design several other dams and hydro-electric power plants. The “Passamaquoddy Project” would require not just one dam, but seven—to hold back a flow of water a dozen times larger than the Mississippi River. Another challenge Cooper faced was that some of Passamaquoddy Bay lay in the United States—but most of it is in Canada.
To pull off such an audacious international project, Cooper needed influential friends. Happily, he had married well, and among the things his wife brought to the marriage was entre into elite society. At his mother-in-law’s house on Campobello Island — which is in Canada, a stone’s throw from the U.S. border — her neighbor was none other than the Assistant Secretary of the United States Navy, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. So began a twenty-five-year effort by Cooper and Roosevelt to build the world’s first tidal-hydro-electric power plant.
Like many grand plans, its fortunes rose and fell. Champions emerged from both political parties and both sides of the border, as did critics. The critics complained it was too expensive; it was unfair competition; it would scare off the tourists; it would kill the fish. But during the Depression, having a hand in the “pork barrel”—and a job doing anything—was better than an empty hand “on the dole.” And Maine needed a hand.
What has NATURE got to say
https://www.nature.com/articles/135299d0
THE Bay of Fundy is well known throughout the world for the height of its tides. It is not surprising, therefore, that Americans are interested in the project for getting tidal power at Passamaquoddy Bay, which lies between New Brunswick, Canada, and Maine, U.S.A.
A full description of the project is given by H. E. M. Kensit in World Power of February. The projected power house is situated entirely in the State of Maine, but as the project is an international one, the power produced would be equally divided between the two countries.
If we compare the estimated cost of the new project with that of the corresponding tidal power schemes in England (the Severn) and in the Argentine (San Jose) it comes out decidedly cheaper. In the English scheme, the cost of a horse-power is 31-4, in the Argentine it is 25-3 and at Passamaquoddy it is 1869, and each is roughly of the same size. The normal spring tides at the head of the Bay of Fundy range between 47 ft. and 52 ft. The maximum recorded tide occurred in 1869 and was nearly 57 ft. At the site of the new power station, the tides will lie between 17 ft. and 19-5 ft.
In 1930, President Hoover induced Congress to defray half the cost of a joint investigation with Canada into the effect of such a station on fisheries. In this connexion, it is of interest to know that the committee on the Severn project decided that a large number of sluices open for many hours every day would obviate any detriment to fishing interests. It is probable therefore that the joint commission on fisheries may present a favourable report. The United States engineers indicate that there is no insuperable difficulty with regard to shipping interests, and many are hoping that this great enterprise will be carried out by private interests and capital.
Canada prefers baby steps
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/tidal-power-bay-of-fundy-turbine-electricity-emera-hydro-1.3862227
Nova Scotia hailed North America’s first successful grid-connected tidal turbine Tuesday with a ceremonial flipping of a switch at a substation outside Parrsboro.
“We are ushering in a new era and taking an unprecedented step towards a lower carbon future,” said Energy Minister Michel Samson.
The 1,000-tonne, five-storey turbine was lowered onto the floor of the Minas Passage earlier this month. It was quickly connected to land via a subsea cable and started producing electricity almost right away.
The turbine generates two megawatts of electricity — enough to power 500 homes. The deployment is part of a large-scale demonstration project to test the technology in the powerful tides of the Bay of Fundy over the next several years.
The first deployment in 2009 failed within days when the turbine blades were destroyed by the powerful tides.
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The point? According to certain respected scholars it was absolutely certain that the airplane concept was delusional, a hoax. The automobile? A huge threat to people using a horse to draw a buggy.
More recently? Promoting the Electric Car will ruin Alberta forever and hurt people in Onterrible who make gas guzzlers.. Not that Alberta has ever considered refining its product and selling it in Canada.
As to advanced technology in BC? Compared to Europe and Asia we’re content to master rubbing two sticks together to create sparks. Because until the next Fire Season hits we’ve still got lots of trees to burn..
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Historians have not been kind to elites who opposed scientific innovation. For centuries Belief among guardians of executive authority rarely promoted anything so radical as Science.
Should BC be vastly different?
What evidence exists that BC lags far behind other jurisdictions? There’s lots.
Quick look ups:
Germany
China
Australia
https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/this-solar-panel-blooms-every-morning/vi-AA1Xnpj7?ocid=BingHp01&pc=GD03&cvid=1149803a0d044d2bf0dc248a80882f58&ei=22#details
USA
https://www.weforum.org/stories/2023/09/renewable-energy-innovations-climate-emergency/
Wind power doesn’t have to mean huge turbines. A US start-up has invented a system that uses three-metre tall wind generators with no external moving parts. Sitting on the edge of roofs,
Aeromine uses the natural airflow up the front of the building to generate power.
The system’s aerodynamic fins guide fast-rising air past an internal turbine, which the company claims produces 50% more power than other sustainable options. Combined with rooftop solar and battery storage, it can meet 100% of a building’s needs, the company says.
UBC
UBC has sufficient confidence in clean energy engineering to justify offering various degrees: UBC MEL & MHLP Professional Leadership Master Degrees
https://apscpp.ubc.ca/programs/mel/clean-energy-engineering
Here are two lists of clean energy projects. Canada is included but the advances are mostly restricted to Alberta.
https://www.worldenergyreport.com/the-race-for-clean-energy-which-countries-are-leading-the-charge/
https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/data-tools/clean-energy-demonstration-projects-database
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