Proposals are in for the latest BC Hydro call for power that was announced last July, with nearly double the generation capacity sought by the utility on offer.
BC Hydro’s 2025 call for power is seeking 5,000 gigawatt-hours per year of added electricity generation, enough to power 500,000 homes, the Crown corporation announced on Wednesday (Jan. 21). The projects must provide renewable energy and be at least 25 per cent First Nation-owned.
A total of 14 proposals were submitted by independent power producers, all but one of which would be for new wind turbine projects. The other is a proposed solar power project.
Five proposals are in the southern Interior, two are in the central Interior, four are on the North Coast, and three are in the Peace region.
The utility has not chosen which ones to go with, but the combined proposals would produce 9,100 gigawatt-hours per year.
“The level of interest that we’ve received shows that B.C. is ready to lead the next wave of clean-energy development,” said Charlotte Mitha, BC Hydro CEO. “These projects will play a key role in delivering the reliable, affordable and clean electricity our province needs to drive economic growth and strengthen communities.”
A spokesperson for BC Hydro said via email that the utility can adjust the final volume it acquires based on the number and quality of proposals.
This is the second BC Hydro call for power in as many years. Both aimed to add a similar amount of power to the grid, but this one differs in that it doesn’t cap the size of each project at 200 megawatts. Proposals received this round range in size from 63 to 496 megawatts.
A megawatt is a measure of instantaneous power, while a gigawatt-hour measures generation capacity over time. For comparison, the Site C dam is capable of producing 1,230 megawatts, or about 5,100 gigawatt-hours per year. This is roughly enough to power 500,000 homes, the same as each of the 2024 and 2025 calls for power.
The aim is for the new projects to start coming online in the fall of 2031, with all of them running by October of 2033.