Whereas BC municipalities are moving quickly to enable electrification through community climate action plans and municipal energy and emissions plans; And whereas there is currently a lack of funding or incentives to support electrification in existing residential, commercial and institutional building retrofits, and a lack of certainty that the electrical grid has the capacity to accommodate the anticipated electrical demand that will result from future retrofits: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM coordinate with the Province, BC Utilities Commission and BC Hydro regarding the need for communities to understand BC Hydros readiness to meet electrification requirements and to support electrification in retrofits in order for communities to meet climate action goals.
BC Hydro BC Hydro understands that BC municipalities are moving quickly to enable electrification through community climate action plans and municipal energy and emissions plans. As we look ahead, BC Hydro has a range of actions that it can leverage to ensure customer needs are met, including preparing for a new Call for Power to acquire about 3,000 gigawatt hours of clean or renewable electricity. In the short-term, Site C will be coming online soon and will provide an additional 8 of our current supply. Thats enough to power nearly half a million homes - or 1.7 million electric vehicles - per year. We are also accelerating or extending the timing of several existing near-term actions, including actions on energy efficiency, demand response, industrial load curtailment, electricity purchase agreement renewals, and utility-scale batteries. In addition, BC Hydro offers study and project implementation funding to enable electrification projects. This is facilitated through BC Hydro offers and those which it administers on behalf of CleanBC to encourage energy efficient design, construction, and renovation of buildings. These actions will ensure that BC Hydro has enough power to meet our customers needs. Other actions were taking include: - Energy Efficiency: we are accelerating and ramping up our energy efficiency programs and integrating these offers with our electrification funding to make it easier for customers to strategically manage their energy use., - Renewing electricity purchase agreements: with existing clean or renewable Independent Power Producer projects at cost-effective prices. - Building our system: For example, our Revelstoke generating station was built with the option to expand when the timing is right. With this option, we can add a final turbine to provide 500 megawatts of additional capacity, which is enough to power more than 200,000 homes. We are committed to continuing to deliver what our customers expect from us - clean and reliable power. We look forward to working together to help local governments achieve their climate action goals.