B.C. Eyes New Hydro Dams to Meet 50% Power Demand Surge
The province will evaluate a Site E dam on the Peace River and potential generation near Bute Inlet as part of plans to increase electricity supply by half by 2050.
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British Columbia will consider building new hydroelectric megadams on the Peace River and Central Coast as part of a long-term plan to increase electricity supplies by 50 per cent by 2050, Energy Minister Adrian Dix announced Monday.
B.C. Hydro is evaluating the viability of a Site E dam on the Peace River, an estimated 750-megawatt facility about 60 kilometres east of the recently completed 1,100-megawatt John Horgan Dam. The utility is also exploring up to 900 megawatts of generation near Bute Inlet on B.C.'s Central Coast.
"Our province is growing in an unprecedented way, equivalent and more to what we saw in the 1960s, which means the need for our clean electricity is soaring," Dix said.
After roughly 18 years of near-flat electricity demand, the province is now responding to rapid growth. The province will need to lift parts of the ban on major hydro projects that former Premier Gordon Campbell wrote into the Clean Energy Act, but Dix considers such facilities essential as part of "B.C. Hydro's defining opportunity to build on our clean-energy advantage."
Site E refers to one of five viable locations for dams on the Peace River identified in 1958 by B.C. Hydro's predecessors for additional facilities downstream of the W.A.C. Bennett and Peace Canyon dams. B.C. Hydro determined in 1978 that Site C, now the John Horgan Dam, was the best of the five.
Dix said detailed assessment of project viability will require "deep, in-depth review." No initial cost estimates have been included in the plan.
The province also unveiled Powering Growth, a document outlining a three-pillar approach: conservation and the Power Smart 2.0 program, optimization of existing systems including a sixth generating unit at Revelstoke Dam, and building new facilities including potential geothermal and biomass power plus utility-scale battery systems.