Tuesday, February 15, 2011

BC Hydro Standing Offer Program revised in British Columbia

BC Hydro, the third largest utility in Canada, owned and operated by the provincial government in the Western Canadian province of British Columbia has revised its Standing Offer Program (BC SOP) for smaller-scale renewable energy projects, implementing all of the recommendations coming out of a review of the original rules.

Important changes in the BC SOP include increasing the maximum project size to 15 MW and increasing the program's fixed prices by 14-29%. The price increase varies from $12/MWh to $22/MWh depending on the region, with the price increases being greater for those regions further away from the Lower Mainland (greater Vancouver area). These regions benefit from a reduced cost estimate for transmitting energy to the Lower Mainland load centre.

Peak pricing is $103.69/MWh in the Lower Mainland area with a low of $94.86/MWh in the Peace Region.

There will be no differential pricing based on technology.

BC Hydro estimates that the new pricing will attract a cumulative total of approximately 1,000 gigawatt hours (GWh) per year of energy over two years under the BC SOP.

The BC SOP will continue with no quota or cap on development - start acquiring your sites for development in BC now before it's too late...

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