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With March 31 fast approaching, certain projects must be finished

It's that time of year again. With BC Hydro's fiscal year end on March 31, what does that mean to you and to your customers' incentive projects? That depends on which program your customers are involved with. Let's review.

Business Energy Savings Program (BESI)

When a customer's application for incentive is submitted, you're required to select an estimated project completion date. Based on the date selected, you'll see a message indicating the time window – with specific dates included – for application submissions. In many cases, you'll find that projects must be completed – that means installed, invoiced and the application declared complete in the CEM Hub on or by March 31.

How can you help? Ensure that the project work has been completed. Have the project invoiced, and work with your customer to declare their projects online before the March 31 deadline.

Can't complete the project in time? Please reach out to the Alliance before the end of March to request an extension to the customer's application. If your customer had a bonus incentive applied to their application, this will carry over as long as we're able to extend the application before year end.

Note the submission date range. Take note of the application's declaration date range before attempting to declare. Declaring a project outside of the application date range will cause the application to terminate. To avoid this issue, don't declare projects outside of the dates indicated.

Self-serve Incentive Program (SIP)

Customers involved in the Industrial SIP program must have their projects completed and declared online by end of day March 14, 2021, which falls on a Sunday this year. For SIP, March 15 to March 31 is a blackout period where customers are unable to declare their projects online.

Vendors involved in SIP projects should take note of the expected completion dates of their projects and review with their customers if an extension request is required. Some customers may be able to request a submission in their applications online. If unavailable, send an email with the project file number and customer name to request an extension.

Reach out to us early, before the deadline

With the exceptional volume of applications received this year, please reach out to us as early as possible with your questions or requests for extension so that we may accommodate you.

We appreciate the support that you provide to customers and to the incentive programs. This has been an exceptional year in so many ways, including the extraordinary support you have provided to customers. Thanks for that.