With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1498118
The utility maintains a rolling Integrat- ed Resource Plan that anticipates load requirements for the next 20 years. It con- tains provisions should demand grow fast- er than forecast, such as energy efficiency measures and voluntary time-of-use rates. There is also potential for development of other renewable energy resources such as wind and solar that can be put into service more quickly than a hydro dam. Businesses putting down roots in B.C. can expect their renewable power to stay that way, in other words. You'll hear a similar message from B.C.'s other major energy utility. FortisBC sup- plies hydro-generated electrical power to customers in parts of the southern Interior as well as natural gas provincewide. It too 16 INVEST in BC 2 0 2 3 Official Publication of the BC Economic Development Association. In special partnership with BCBusiness. BOT TOM: FORTISBC UNTAPPED POTENTIAL: Wind farm on northern Vancouver Island (top); rooftop solar (middle); FortisBC helped the St. Vincent's: Brock Fahrni seniors' care home in Vancouver convert to renewable natural gas (bottom) is working with customers to help them make the energy transition. This year, for example, FortisBC an- nounced a successful pilot with Providence Health Care to install a high-efficiency thermal gradient header system at St. Vincent's: Brock Fahrni, one of the hos- pital network's long-term care homes in Vancouver. In addition to saving about $100,000 a year in heating costs, the sys- tem provides cooling that is increasingly necessary in seniors' housing due to rising summer temperatures. With its savings, Providence opted to subscribe to Fortis- BC's Renewable Natural Gas program that uses methane derived from biomass, bring- ing the facility's net carbon emissions for heating and air conditioning close to zero. The hospital network is now looking to make similar upgrades in all its long-term care homes. In bringing about the switch to low-car- bon, renewable energy, British Columbia is just getting started, and its resources are vast. "Now, more than ever, businesses in many jurisdictions, they're experiencing energy instability. They're experiencing price volatility. They're experiencing a call to arms to step into a lower-carbon, electri- fied future and looking for tools and ways to do that," BC Hydro's Stephenson says. "We are in a particularly strong position of having clean energy and supporting our provincial government's goal to step into this space." • C L I M AT E C H A N G E