LTAP: Utilities Commission rejects BC Hydro's 2008 Long-Term Acquisition plan

The BC Utilities Commission has just released its decision on BC Hydro's 2008 Long-term Acquisition Plan.
Decision (PDF)

The Commission has taken issue with several critically important parts of the plan, including the demand-side management plan and the amount of reliance on Burrard Thermal for generation:

- Section 6.0 reviews BC Hydro’s request for primary relief namely a determination that the 2008 LTAP is in the public interest.

- In section 6.2 the Commission Panel reviews the energy and capacity self-sufficiency obligation in section 3 of Special Direction 10 (SD 10) and determines that BC Hydro has not adequately addressed the self-sufficiency obligation established by SD 10 in its 2008 LTAP.

- In Section 6.3 it reviews BC Hydro’s Load Forecast and approves it.

- In Section 6.4 it reviews BC Hydro’s Demand Side Management (DSM) Plan and finds that it cannot determine whether BC Hydro’s DSM Plan complies with section 44.1 of the Act and rejects it. (See M271/2008 Demand Side Measures Regulation)

- In Section 6.5 it reviews BC Hydro’s existing and committed resources and endorses BC Hydro’s plan to rely on Burrard for 900 MW of dependable capacity. It rejects BC Hydro’s plan to reduce its reliance on Burrard to 3,000 GWh/year of energy for planning purposes.

- In Section 6.6 it reviews the load/resource gap and determines that it cannot endorse a specific volume from the 2008 Clean Power Call.

- As a result of having rejected or found deficient a number of material parts of the 2008 LTAP, in Section 6.7 the Commission Panel rejects the 2008 LTAP.

This is a very strong slap on the wrist for BC Hydro. Practical consequences are not entirely clear. The BCUC's main recourse against Hydro is to rule that certain expenses can't be rolled into the rate base, i.e. paid for by BC Hydro ratepayers. However, when this happens, the expense is then borne by the shareholder, i.e. the government, which means less revenues from Hydro to government coffers, thense to program spending.

Tom Hackney, V-P for Policy
BC Sustainable Energy Association
(250) 381-4463
thackney@shaw.ca
www.bcsea.org