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Artist’s rendering of the Site C project at full build-out in 2024. credit: BC Hydro
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We all use electricity, every day, for more tasks than we’re likely aware of, and likely without thinking too much about it. But BC Hydro’s president and CEO, Jessica McDonald, has been thinking about it a lot, because her organization generates electricity for users across the province and must prepare for future energy demand. The Site C Clean Energy Project is BC Hydro’s plan for reliable power generation for the next 100 years.
“We’re building Site C to help meet BC’s long-term electricity needs, which are forecast to increase by almost 40% over the next 20 years as the economy expands and the population grows by more than a million people,” explains McDonald. “At the same time, new technologies like electric vehicles and new-to-BC industries such as liquefied natural gas (LNG) will put new pressures on our system. More people and new technologies mean new demand.”
The project received federal and provincial government environmental approvals in October 2014. Approval followed an assessment process by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency and the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office, which started in August 2011 and took approximately three years to complete. In December 2014, the Province of BC decided to proceed to construction.
Read more about BC Hydro’s work to plan and build Site C in “Site C’s Role in BC’s Energy Future,” in the Spring 2017 edition of Input, page 6. Download Spring 2017
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