General Infrastructure Discussion

[madog222]

BC's peak hourly electrical demand reached an all time high over Friday night at 11,300 MW. That's almost 94% of BC Hydro's nameplate capacity.

[Alex Mackinnon]

Originally Posted by madog222

BC's peak hourly electrical demand reached an all time high over Friday night at 11,300 MW. That's almost 94% of BC Hydro's nameplate capacity.

Good thing Site C was built, despite there clearly being no demand /s.

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

Originally Posted by Alex Mackinnon

Good thing Site C was built, despite there clearly being now demand /s.

but i thought site C wasnt needed and was a total waste? i mean even the UN hates us for building it.

good luck to us for trying to electrify our entire heating and transportation sector.

[s211]

Originally Posted by madog222

BC's peak hourly electrical demand reached an all time high over Friday night at 11,300 MW. That's almost 94% of BC Hydro's nameplate capacity.

Alberta put out an emergency alert on phones (and presumably broadcast TV) because they were in danger of rolling blackouts.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by Alex Mackinnon

Good thing Site C was built, despite there clearly being no demand /s.

Site C would have been proposed and designed long before electric cars were a gleam in Elon Musk’s eye. I wonder how B.C. Hydro will be able to handle the load with EVs being the majority of vehicles on the road during a cold snap?

I see Hydro is now defending their importation of 20% of our power this summer by being able to sell power to Alberta, Idaho and Washington over the last week. Did they get lucky or were they actually forecasting such cold temps?

https://biv.com/article/2024/01/rob-shaw-bc-hydros-summertime-power-imports-pay-during-deep-freeze

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by whatnext

I see Hydro is now defending their importation of 20% of our power this summer by being able to sell power to Alberta, Idaho and Washington over the last week. Did they get lucky or were they actually forecasting such cold temps?

They were probably hedging their bets so reservoir levels wouldn't get dangerously low.

[madog222]

^Also all the run-of-the-river stations would be on minimal or zero production during the summer.

[chowhou]

I thought they were worried about snowpack/drought conditions? I didn't even know people were mad about BC Hydro purchasing power.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Ah, but if we blew sixteen billion bucks on a dam, why do we still need to buy power? /s

Some people need to have "buy low, sell high" explained to them. Most don't care about BC Hydro's purchases at all.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

Ah, but if we blew sixteen billion bucks on a dam, why do we still need to buy power? /s

Some people need to have "buy low, sell high" explained to them. Most don't care about BC Hydro's purchases at all.

Well BCH used to be a net exporter up until about 5 years ago, now we are a net importer. That's a pretty significant change, and we don't have unlimited interconnects with neighboring utilities and we shouldn't assume they have unlimited cheap power to supply us either.

[libtard]

We buy power when it’s beneficial to us. Low price and keep our water stored

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by chowhou

I thought they were worried about snowpack/drought conditions? I didn't even know people were mad about BC Hydro purchasing power.

Given that our “clean hydro power” is frequently used a reason to invest in B.C. or to encourage quick adoption of EVs I bet it comes as a shock to many British Columbians that one fifth of our power was purchased from outside the province, possibly from carbon intensive production.

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Given that our “clean hydro power” is frequently used a reason to invest in B.C. or to encourage quick adoption of EVs I bet it comes as a shock to many British Columbians that one fifth of our power was purchased from outside the province, possibly from carbon intensive production.

British Columbians also might be shocked to learn that around a tenth of our "domestic" power generation has always happened south of the border in Washington as part of the terms of the Columbia River Treaty (or well since the 60s).

[Metro-One]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

Ah, but if we blew sixteen billion bucks on a dam, why do we still need to buy power? /s

Some people need to have "buy low, sell high" explained to them. Most don't care about BC Hydro's purchases at all.

Seeing how it wont be completed until 2025, that might have something to do with it currently?

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

Seeing how it wont be completed until 2025, that might have something to do with it currently?

According to the BiV article, BC Hydro imported 10,000GWh of power last year; Site C is expected to have an annual production of only 4,600GWh, so we're still potentially importing electricity in 2025 after completion.

[whatnext]

Also worth noting, BC Hydro is planning on decommissioning a natural gas fuelled plant on Vancouver Island that would be able to provide power in a crunch. But I guess they’d rather say they don’t operate any NG fired powerplants while quietly buying power from other sources that do.

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by chowhou

According to the BiV article, BC Hydro imported 10,000GWh of power last year; Site C is expected to have an annual production of only 4,600GWh, so we're still potentially importing electricity in 2025 after completion.

Is that net imports? It's my understanding that we tend to import power in the winter when demand in the southern US is down, and export it in the summer when it's up (our power doesn't flow directly to California, but it flows to Washington, while their power flows to Oregon, who in turn provide power to California).

I don't see a problem with seasonal power imbalances flowing back and forth to our neighbors. It's a sensible way to deal with complementary demand requirements on the Left Coast.

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by aberdeen5698

Is that net imports? It's my understanding that we tend to import power in the winter when demand in the southern US is down, and export it in the summer when it's up (our power doesn't flow directly to California, but it flows to Washington, while their power flows to Oregon, who in turn provide power to California).

I don't see a problem with seasonal power imbalances flowing back and forth to our neighbors. It's a sensible way to deal with complementary demand requirements on the Left Coast.

It's not entirely clear, but the article seems to heavily imply that it was 10,000 GWh in net imports.

BC Hydro faced criticism last year for importing 10,000 gigawatt hours of electricity, roughly one-fifth of the province’s needs. It was a rare move for a corporation that is usually a net exporter of power.

The only issue with seasonal back and forth is that our primary electricity import source is Washington where one sixth of their electricity is still produced by burning fossil fuels. It's not the majority, but it's not something to ignore either.

[libtard]

Originally Posted by aberdeen5698

Is that net imports? It's my understanding that we tend to import power in the winter when demand in the southern US is down, and export it in the summer when it's up (our power doesn't flow directly to California, but it flows to Washington, while their power flows to Oregon, who in turn provide power to California).

I don't see a problem with seasonal power imbalances flowing back and forth to our neighbors. It's a sensible way to deal with complementary demand requirements on the Left Coast.

BC had a direct DC line to California for exporting

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by libtard

BC had a direct DC line to California for exporting

Here's the international transmission/distribution lines, I guess the one near Selkirk is the one exporting power though.

https://www.bchydro.com/energy-in-bc/ope...%20the,crossing%2C%20at%20Blaine%2C%20WA.

The Alberta interconnections

https://www.bchydro.com/content/dam/BCHy...-system/system_operating_orders/7T17.pdf