Utility says B.C.’s heat, rain and cold in 2021 underscore changing demand for power

VANCOUVER - British Columbia endured scorching summer time warmth and bone-numbing chilly to finish 2021 and the province’s electrical utility says the outcome was a record-breaking, year-round demand for energy, launching a pattern that’s not anticipated to finish quickly.

In a report inspecting electrical energy demand throughout final yr’s unprecedented climate occasions, BC Hydro says the province’s cold and hot extremes translated into extra hours of peak energy use on extra days in 2021 than in some other yr.

Hydro says 19 of its high 25 summer time each day peak data have been set throughout B.C.’s warmth dome in June, together with a brand new summer time excessive of 8,568 megawatts on June 28, as elevated use of air conditioners helped smash the outdated mark by 600 megawatts

The Crown utility says that highlights a key shift as air conditioner use has climbed 50 per cent in B.C. during the last decade, including summertime peak hundreds to data extra historically set in winter, such because the all-time peak of 10,787 megawatts utilized in a single hour on Dec. 27 throughout the current Arctic deep freeze.

The Hydro report foresees little change in future wintertime demand for electrical energy and warns local weather fashions counsel B.C.’s sizzling summers will proceed indefinitely, creating year-round electrical energy calls for, relatively than a winter surge.

A current ballot executed for BC Hydro discovered 76 per cent of residents fear about dependable energy provides throughout excessive climate occasions however the utility’s report says Hydro has a surplus of electrical energy and expects to have greater than it wants till about 2030.

“BC Hydro’s 20-year built-in useful resource plan maps out the way it will meet future demand for electrical energy by way of a mixture of power conservation and the event of extra technology assets,” the report says.

Though Hydro says it has greater than sufficient energy to maintain up with modifications in demand, it calls on B.C. residents to proceed to assist tame local weather change by reducing greenhouse gasoline emissions:

“Putting in an electrical warmth pump rather than a gasoline furnace will considerably cut back dwelling heating emissions, and supplies the additional advantage of not solely heating, however cooling within the hotter months,” says the report.

The utility additionally urges drivers to modify to electrical automobiles, saying that may decrease a household’s carbon footprint and save hundreds in gasoline prices on the identical time.

This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Jan. 21, 2022.