Drought conditions that limited B.C. Hydro’s domestic electricity production starting in 2022 have eased over the fall, but it remains a question how much difference the change will make as the utility enters 2025.
B.C. Hydro, in its second quarter financial results, reported “near normal accumulated precipitation” over the first six months of the year, and the utility was able to dial back on imports of electricity during the period, which covered July through the end of September.
B.C. “experienced a historic drought starting in 2022 that has impacted our reservoirs,” B.C. Hydro spokesperson Kevin Aquino said in an email response.
However, “with the rain across October and early November, the drought designations for B.C. Hydro basins were removed for most of the province’s basins,” Aquino said. He added that the province stopped updating its drought indexes at the start of the winter season.
“The seasonal water supply forecasts for the Columbia and Williston reservoirs have also improved with the fall precipitation and near normal snowpack to date,” Aquino said.
Over the past two years, B.C. Hydro became a net importer of electricity due to the drought relying on electricity purchases from the open market to meet 25 per cent of B.C.’s demand in its fiscal 2024, which ended March 31.
While B.C. Hydro remained a net importer over the first six months of this fiscal year, the rate slowed to about 11 per cent of demand, according to the report and Aquino said the utility’s focus is on “winter energy management and spring 2025 reservoir levels.”
Overall, fall and winter weather has delivered almost normal to above normal precipitation up to Dec. 22, except for northeastern B.C. according to Environment and Climate Change Canada meteorologist Trevor Smith.
Smith said precipitation in the Fort Nelson region was only 71 per cent of normal, so “that’s certainly not going to undo the precipitation deficit [in that region].”
Further south in the Peace River region, Smith said “the deficit seemed less.”
“Precipitation wise, in those areas that have been classified as quite droughty [in the northeast], I don’t think we’ve seen anything this fall to really change that,” Smith said.
Smith said the long-term forecast anticipated the pacific region shifting from El Niño conditions, with warmer weather, to La Nina conditions, which would be colder with more snow in the north. However, it still isn’t clear how much La Nina will take hold.
“We’re trending that way [but] it looks like it will be a fairly weak La Nina,” Smith said.
In its second-quarter report, B.C. Hydro said storage levels in its main reservoirs for energy production were higher than they were a year ago, which they were able to maintain by importing electricity in the first quarter, but the levels are still below their 10-year average.
The report added that on balance, B.C. Hydro has been a net exporter of electricity in eight of the past 15 years.
For 2025, Aquino said “winter precipitation is now locked in as snow and inflow from that snowpack will not occur until next spring,” making it difficult to predict next year’s water supply.
“Increased precipitation has meant reservoir levels are much better than in 2022,” Aquino said..
