Future BC Hydro ratepayers will be paying excessive rates for electricity and BC Hydro financial statements have been distorted by non-standard accounting methods. These allowed the provincial government to direct payments of dividends funded by borrowing, not by real profits of the utility. But other failures and mismanagement at BC Hydro are apparent…
Falsehoods and misinformation, government specialties
Never has the government of British Columbia stood behind a larger megaproject than the Site C hydropower project. Never have more falsehoods been used to justify BC Hydro operations and the spending of tens of billions of dollars.
Campbell Clark Horgan madness
While British Columbia has policies to prevent additions of solar power to the provincial power grid, Germany has been moving forward on this form of renewable electricity. It should be noted that the centre of Germany is at a latitude similar to that of Kamloops…
BC Hydro’s dishonesty about demand growth costs us billions
Most people are educated by BC Hydro’s dishonest claims about demand growth. So, when they read a report that domestic sales have been flat for 15 years, they tend to be doubtful. Today, an In-Sights reader who works in the trades sent a message. It shows one example of modern technology affecting electric utility demand.
Electric shock
In a few words, over a 15 year span, total annual revenues (what we have paid as customers) have increased by 100% , over the same period and with inclusion of contract obligations the total capital deployed more than doubled but customer needs ( as represented by volume of annual sales measured in gigawatt-hours) remained unchanged.
Why we’re voting
It is easy to conclude why Premier John Horgan ignored BC’s established pattern of general elections every four years. The BC NDP was riding high in the polls but a threat to that popularity was looming. A threat not known to the general public…
A conversation about BC Hydro
My conversation about BC Hydro with Chris Cook for CFUV 101.9 FM radio in Victoria. Chris regularly addresses issues not well covered by corporate media. BC Hydro’s difficulties definitely fit in that category.
North American Megadam Resistance Alliance
Before forming the Horgan Government in 2017, BC NDP was a frequent critic of how BC Liberals managed BC Hydro, our largest and most important crown corporation. NDP promised radical improvements. Those promises were empty. The only substantive changes were the appointment of Chair Ken Peterson and multi-billion dollar increases in capital spending.
Curious deal in BC’s pay-to-play economy
In early 2014, BC Hydro awarded SNC-Lavalin a contract to design, build, finance and maintain the John Hart Generating Station Replacement Project on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada.
BC Hydro salaries
BC Hydro withheld its Financial Information Act Return for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020 until September 30, the final day before failure to publish the report would have offended provincial law…
Lies cost BC citizens billions
To gain public support for massive spending, BC Hydro is untruthful. To avoid taking responsibility for bad public policy, the Horgan Government pretends not to notice…
BC Hydro Annual Report
In the fiscal year ended March 31, to its residential, commercial and industrial customers, BC Hydro sold 1.6% less electricity than in the previous year. The volume in 2019-2020 was slightly less than the 15 year average…
Energy policy undermined by special interests
Difficulty justifying billions of dollars spent to meet a need that has not existed is no real problem for people who benefit from the expenditures. After years of arguing falsely that more electricity has been needed to serve population growth, now they contend that vastly more capacity is required for electric vehicles…
Population change, economic growth and electricity consumption
It seems logical that a growing population and an expanding economy would need greater supplies of electricity. But de-industrialization and lighting, motor and other efficiencies changed the proposition. Reality over the past 15 years is something difference…
Good advice ignored
More than ten years ago, economist Erik Andersen and famed commentator Rafe Mair warned that BC Liberals had planted seeds of destruction in the bowels of BC Hydro. Indeed, the seeds germinated, spread invasively and debilitated the once proud utility. Citing five vectors, Andersen concluded the financial position of BC Hydro was headed dangerously downward…
Errors and alternatives
Three years ago, John Horgan’s Government promised the $10.7 billion budget for Site C would be firm, final and effectively managed. Three years before that, Liberal Energy Minister Bill Bennett provided assurance that the $7.9 billion dam budget had been fully reviewed by the world’s top experts. With an overly generous contingency, he said It was final, with nothing left to chance.
In 2020, BC Hydro admits it is uncertain how the dam can be made safe from catastrophe. Consequently, the amount of money needed to complete Site is unknown…
Site C losses will be massive
With domestic demand in 2020 below that of 2005, the lies of BC Hydro’s spin doctors about demand growth are exposed by the company’s audited sales numbers. Site C power seems promised to natural gas producers and processors at less than 6¢ per KWh, which would result in operating losses at Site C approaching $500 million a year. Those could double if BC’s surplus power is dumped in export markets that are taking advantage of low-cost solar and wind power. With certainty of billions to be lost by completing Site C, the obvious choice is to suspend the project immediately. It would be the least-cost option…
Sarah Cox on CO-OP RADIO
Co-op Radio’s interview with Sarah Cox, the preeminent journalist covering issues surrounding British Columbia’s effort to ensure that NL’s Muskrat Falls is only the second worst hydro-electric project in Canada.
Site C: Government failure to safeguard the public interest
That Ralston, Horgan and colleagues knew about cost pressures and risks three years ago and chose to proceed shows the NDP wholly owns this fiasco. Had Site C been stopped in 2017, the loss would have certainly been less than the difference between the initial budget and the final cost. Probably far less, if lessons from eastern Canada apply…
Private profits but public risks – Updated
Commercialization of small-scale nuclear power has turned out to be far more difficult than investors expected a decade ago. Even one of the world’s richest entrepreneurs cannot finance a multi-billion-dollar program with an uncertain future. Nuclear may play a role in the 2030s but solar, wind and geothermal are viable power sources today…
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