For over 45 years, BC Hydro has generated reliable electricity for residential, commercial, and industrial customers. However, the 2002 BC Government’s Energy Plan restricted BC Hydro from developing its own new generation facilities. Instead, the Plan instructed BC Hydro to acquire new energy supplies from private sector independent power producers (IPPs) at rates much higher than it costs BC Hydro to generate power from its traditional sources.

“Run of the river ” (ROR) power projects are one example. These are projects run by IPPs that have emerged gold rush style to seize this opportunity. The Provincial Government has dramatically increased the sale of water power licenses on BC’s rivers. These licenses cost as little as $5,000 to $10, 000 and last for 20 to 40 years. IPPs are claiming their run of the river hydro projects to be sources of “green” power — an appealing but misleading description. Invariably these projects require logging, access road construction, transmission lines and rock blasting: all have significant environmental impact on forests, wildlife, fish and other aquatic species. In fact, due to the size and impact of many of these projects, BC ROR projects were recently judged unfit to meet California’s criteria for green energy. read more >>