British Columbia offers lower rates to get industries connected to power grid

British Columbia is offering five years of reduced electricity and transmission charges to attract heavy industrial users to the provincial power grid.

Under the program, facilities such as mines, forestry operations and natural gas producers that currently use off-grid resources to power their operations will be offered a 20% discount on grid-supplied electricity rates for five years, according to a statement posted on the website of province-owned BC Hydro and Power Authority. The incentive rates will drop to 13% in the sixth year and 7% in the seventh year. The rates will be available through March 31, 2030, and will expire on the same date in 2037. The program will be capped at 5,000 GWh/year.

The discounts will also be available under the province's Clean Industry and Innovation Rate, which is aimed at attracting electricity-intensive industries to British Columbia. The program targets companies that produce hydrogen through electrolysis; producers of synthetic fuels from hydrogen, carbon dioxide or biomass; and projects to capture and store carbon dioxide. The program will also be extended to large data storage and computing centers such as those used to mine cryptocurrencies.

"We're making it easier and more affordable for mines, clean technology companies and other sectors to use more of B.C.'s clean, reliable hydroelectricity instead of fossil fuels," British Columbia Energy Minister Bruce Ralston said in a press release. "Fast-tracking electrification across our economy will support economic recovery and cleaner public transportation, create jobs for British Columbians and attract new investment to our province."

British Columbia will use C$84.4 million from a Government of Canada clean infrastructure program to fund the discounts. The province and BC Hydro are scrambling to find buyers for new power from the under-construction Site C project on the Peace River, which will add 1,098 MW of capacity to the grid on its completion. That project, along with other expansions at the province's hydroelectric facilities along the Canadian portion of the Columbia River and with the cancellation of more than a dozen planned LNG export projects, raised doubts about Site C's viability. A government review found that the cost of abandoning the partially completed project, which is estimated to cost C$10.7 billion, would be too high for taxpayers to bear.