News release

VANCOUVER: BC Hydro is supporting the construction of new housing developments in growing communities by advancing changes to streamline upgrades and reducing the cost of new customer connections to BC Hydro’s electricity grid.

“As communities across B.C. grow, so does the need for essential housing. We are committed to ensuring we’re ready to meet this growing demand for clean power, getting power to where it’s needed, when it’s need,” said Josie Osborne, Minister of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation. “And one of the actions we are taking, is to make it easier for homes and businesses to connect to our clean electricity system, while reducing costs.”

On June 27, BC Hydro filed an application with the BC Utilities Commission to modernize its Distribution Extension Policy to meet growing demand. The policy, which has not been updated since 2008, sets out how costs are allocated between new and existing non-industrial customers for new or upgraded connections to BC Hydro’s system. In recent years, municipalities, home builders and other stakeholders have been advocating for changes that would reduce costs and improve predictability. Under the current policy, new or upgraded connections that require system upgrades must be completely paid for upfront by the initial customer that makes the request.

“We’re taking an all hands-on-deck approach to delivering affordable homes for people living and working in British Columbia,” said Ravi Kahlon, Minister of Housing. “The changes BC Hydro is making to streamline new connections to the grid, and the work it is doing with local governments to explore ways to improve timelines on building infrastructure will speed up housing developments, reduce building costs, and get people into homes faster.”

Under its updated policy, BC Hydro will eliminate system improvement costs for all new customers – except in extraordinary circumstances – and increase BC Hydro’s maximum contribution to offsetting extension costs. These improvements will lower the cost of connections for many customers, speed up connection timelines, and better balance cost sharing when initial customer infrastructure investments enable others to connect at a later date. Most importantly, it will provide greater cost certainty for developers and help to support investments in affordable housing, including larger multi-unit developments, as well as electrification of homes and businesses.

“As our population grows, so does the need for more housing and we’ve seen customer connection requests increase by more than one-third in recent years. With the growth forecasted to continue, we have listened carefully to our customers and stakeholders and are proposing changes to the existing policy based on their important input,” said Chris O’Riley, President and CEO of BC Hydro. “This includes updates that will provide greater cost certainty for customers, encourage larger multi-unit developments, support investments in affordable housing and encourage electrification to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

Updating the Distribution Extension Policy is one of many important actions BC Hydro is taking to make connections easier and more affordable. To stay ahead of demand and connect customers faster, BC Hydro is investing $5.3 billion to address load growth and increase customer connections through its 10-Year Capital Plan. The plan outlines how BC Hydro will support new customer interconnection requests and ensure the system reinforcement is in place when it’s needed – on both the distribution and transmission systems. Investment highlights include:

• With over 180,000 new residential accounts expected over the next 10 years, BC Hydro is building over 50 new distribution feeders in the next five years that can supply about 200,000 new homes.
• Over 250 kilometres of new major underground distribution infrastructure is under construction.
• Upgrades to an additional 14 substations will also be completed, adding 24,000 megawatts of power capacity.
• On the transmission side, there are nearly 50 projects in progress, and that number is expected to grow over the coming years as new projects enter the queue.

These investments will support residential housing and business growth, as well as transportation and industrial electrification.

BC Hydro has hired more higher skilled workers and has streamlined processes to complete the over 35,000 connections requests received annually faster. In addition, BC Hydro has been collaborating with municipalities, developers and low-income housing providers to identify opportunities for further improvement and faster connections. For example, BC Hydro is working in parallel with the City of Vancouver to reduce municipal permit timelines for multiplexes to identify servicing requirements and any potential design issues early in the development process. It is also leveraging municipal projects such as road widenings to have joint tenders with BC Hydro in Surrey and the Township of Langley.

The proposed Distribution Extension Policy updates were based on 18 months of extensive customer and stakeholder engagement that included BC Housing, municipalities, development associations, like the Urban Development Institute, and individual developers. The changes are subject to approval by the BC Utilities Commission through a public process. A decision is expected in 2025.

Contact:
BC Hydro Media Relations
e. media@bchydro.com
p. 604 928 6468