BC Hydro’s CEO praised Lheidli T’enneh First Nation’s new wind power project and discussed the state of business for his Crown corporation while a former provincial cabinet minister called for power generated by natural gas at the second day of the 2025 BC Natural Resources Forum on Jan. 15.
A lengthy portion of the afternoon’s proceedings involved energy as Hydro’s Chris O’Riley delivered a keynote address before joining a four-person panel discussing how to strengthen BC’s energy grid.
O’Riley’s speech came less than a day after Premier David Eby announced that the provincial government would give the BC Energy Regulator sole permitting authority for the North Coast transmission line, which he said would speed up the planned its construction.
The CEO said that Hydro has $4.7 billion of work earmarked for Northern BC over the next 10 years, include the transmission line. He added that Eby’s announcement would make sure the line would be built “as fast and efficiently as possible.”
“We are seeing significant potential growth in the area,” O’Riley said. “We’ve initiated new projects to build the lines that will entwine the existing 500,000-kilovolt system between Prince George and Terrace to meet these significant new loads. This project will also improve reliability in the region.”
Currently, BC Hydro is working with First Nations whose territory will be crossed by the line to determine the best route. Discussions are also underway on a co-ownership model for the line with those First Nations.
Much of O’Riley’s address was about the instability experienced by BC Hydro because of record droughts in the province over the last three years, which affect the province’s capacity to generate hydroelectric power.
He said a lot of work went into maintaining dam reservoir water levels during that time to make sure that BC would have enough power to meet peak demand. Thankfully, O’Riley said, precipitation in recent months has led to the removal of drought designations for much of the province including in basins where dams are located.
The Crown corporation is working to forecast BC’s future power needs from population growth, industrial projects, heating as customers switch to electricity to reduce their carbon footprint.
However, O’Riley noted that the province’s electrical load has been relatively low in recent years because of management practices and the downturn in the forestry industry.
The approval of nine wind projects and one solar project by the provincial government late last year, including a 140-megawatt wind project co-owned by Lheidli T’enneh near Hixon, is part of the plan to meet that rising demand.
O’Riley said those projects are expected to boost BC’s electricity production by eight per cent — about the same as the Site C dam.
Those projects are expected to generate $6 billion in construction for the economy and since most of the projects are roughly 50 per cent owned by First Nations, he said that’s around $3 billion in new assets for those nations.
After the keynote ended, O’Riley was joined on stage by Andrew Robinson, CEO of the Nisga’a Lisims Government, Kwattuuma Cole Sayers, executive director of the Clean Energy Association of BC and Barry Penner, a former cabinet minister under the Gordon Campbell and Christy Clark governments who is now the chair of the Energy Futures Institute.
The discussion was moderated by Alexa Young, vice-president of business, government and public affairs for New Economy Canada.
Some of the most pointed remarks of the panel came from Penner.
The former environment minister said BC can’t get complacent on power, especially with the upcoming second presidency of Donald Trump.
Penner said he winced when Ontario Premier Doug Ford floated the idea of blocking energy sales to the US as BC imported 20 per cent of its power last year and a retaliatory action from the Americans could easily affect us.
His key point was that sustainability can’t be done at the cost of reliability, using the analogy that BC shouldn’t put all its eggs in the hydroelectric basket.
For that reason, Penner said, the province diversifying energy sources to wind and others “makes nothing but sense.”
He recommended several other changes to BC’s power approach.
Instead of considering a ban on the installation of new standalone gas heating appliances by 2030, promote a hybrid system where natural gas can be used when it's too cold for heat pumps to run efficiently. This, he said would leverage BC’s existing natural gas, save the province billions in electric imports and make it less dependent on its neighbours.
“I just think it’s unrealistic and it’s dangerous,” he said of the desire to phase out natural gas heating.
Penner cited a recent report from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, which projects a shortfall of winter power transfers in the winters of 2027-28 and 2028-29 and from 2033-34 onwards, which would require the importation of power “if new resources were to be significantly delayed.”
He also advocated for adjusting Clean BC energy targets and relaxing rules that will eventually require 90 per cent of vehicles sold in the province to be electric and 100 per cent by 2035.
Following up, O’Riley said that just as when Penner was in government, BC exports power during a high-water year and imports it during a low-water year.
He also said that during the big cold snap in January 2024, when Alberta and Washington state were sending out phone warnings asking residents to reduce their power consumption, BC was a net exporter of power during that time.
On heat pumps and electric vehicles, he said they have been helpful technologies to reduce BC’s carbon footprint and he believes the pace of the transition to using them will be such that Hydro will be able to keep up with demand.
With regards to electric vehicles, Penner pointed out in return that the $5,000 federal rebate for new purchases was halted earlier in January and changes announced to the provincial counterpart last year means 75 per cent of electric vehicles and hybrids don’t qualify for the $4,000 credit. This, he said, makes them less affordable.
The panel also briefly touched on the First Nations wind power projects being allowed to bypass the environmental review process.
Sayers said the exemption from environmental assessment does not mean an exemption from environmental oversight.
“There’s still a robust environmental permitting process that has high standards in addition to the First Nations’ own,” Sayers said. “Lots of First Nations have their own laws and their own processes … so there’s been a lot of thought put into these projects already.”
