EN16 Greenhouse Gas Emissions (Service Plan Metric)

* The F2011 Target has been restated from 1.50 million tonnes CO₂e to 1.55 million tonnes CO₂e, as a result of the BC Hydro/BCTC integration.

** Previously reported F2010 performance results have been restated to reflect calculation methods required by the B.C. Reporting Regulation and the B.C. Carbon Neutral Government Regulation. At the end of F2010, they were reported as 1.31 million tonnes CO₂e.

The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions metric includes emissions from electricity generation, electricity purchased from B.C. Independent Power Producers (IPPs), vehicle fleet fuel combustion, fuel combustion in buildings, and estimated fugitive SF₆ releases. BC Hydro's GHG emissions fluctuate from year to year because of the need to ensure reliability under annual prevailing water conditions.

The fiscal 2011 overall GHG emissions were significantly below the target of 1.55 million tonnes CO₂e, primarily due to lower than acticipated use of the Island Generation Plant and BC Hydro's Burrard Generating Station. Given market conditions, Island Generation did not operate for a total of about four and a half months in fiscal 2011. The Burrard Generating Station was called into service for emergency backup supply in July due to a substation outage and in November due to a cold snap.

When compared to published emission data from other Canadian hydroelectric utilities, BC Hydro's fiscal 2011 emissions of 1.11 million tonnes CO₂e for about 50,000 GWh of generation were higher than the reported 2009 emissions of Manitoba Hydro (0.25 million tonnes CO₂e for about 35,000 GWh) and Hydro Quebec (0.39 million tonnes CO₂e for about 203,000 GWh). This reflects the higher proportions of hydroelectric generation in the resource mix for these utilities.

GHG emissions from BC Hydro's owned electricity generating facilities were calculated using methods required under the B.C. Greenhouse Gas Reporting Regulation, with the exception of small generating stations that were not subject to reporting under the Regulation. For these facilities, published emission factors from Environment Canada were applied to known fuel use. Fugitive SF₆ emissions are inventoried once per year and annual results for the 2010 calendar year were used to estimate fiscal 2011 SF₆ releases. The methods used to calculate GHG emissions from BC Hydro's buildings and vehicle fleet are described under the Carbon Neutral Program Emissions section. GHG emissions from IPPs were estimated and will be updated when regulatory report information becomes available. BC Hydro has retained an external verifier to verify GHG emissions from owned electricity generation and fugitive SF₆ emissions as required by the Reporting Regulation. All source data are subject to internal controls including data range controls and manager approval of source data.

Note: In the past, BC Hydro set targets for two GHG emissions measures: one for overall GHG emissions, and one to track performance toward carbon neutral public sector objectives. In fiscal 2012, we will replace the overall GHG emissions measure with the Electricity Production GHG Emissions measure to ensure that all material emission sources are included in one of the two GHG metrics, but not both. Restricting one metric to Electricity Production also makes our numbers more comparable to other utilities.