Meeting Demand Growth

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The challenge: A growing province and aging infrastructure

Our province and population continues to grow and so has our need for more electricity. As we look to the future, new technologies, new industry and growing populations are increasing demand for energy.

Meeting current and future demand for electricity in B.C. must be the foundation of our planning activities. We are now forecasting that the province’s electricity needs will grow by as much as 40 per cent over the next 20 years, due to industrial activity, general economic growth and
electrification.

A move to self-sufficiency

Since the late 1990s, BC Hydro has depended on electricity imports to meet the demand for power. The Province has established a goal of achieving electricity self-sufficiency by 2016 — meaning that BC Hydro must be able to supply British Columbia’s electricity needs through domestic sources of power.

To meet B.C.’s future electricity needs, BC Hydro must invest in our generation and transmission assets and adopt new technologies that prepare us for the future.

BC Hydro will keep meeting the electricity needs of British Columbians today and for future generations by:

• Upgrading our existing facilities;
• Securing new supplies of clean energy;
• Building new transmission and distribution infrastructure:
• Encouraging conservation and energy efficiency.