The BC Hydro and Power Authority is a Canadian electric utility in the province of British Columbia generally known simply as BC Hydro. It is the main electric distributor, serving 1.8 million customers in most areas, with the exception of the City of New Westminster, where the city runs its own electrical department and the Kootenay region, where FortisBC, a subsidiary of Fortis Inc. directly provides electric service to 213,000 customers and supplies municipally owned utilities in the same area. As a provincial Crown corporation, BC Hydro reports to the BC Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, and is regulated by the British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC). It is mandated to provide, "reliable power, at low cost, for generations." B.C. Energy Minister Rich Coleman said that increases would not be as high as the 10 per cent per year for five years that Hydro had announced March 2011.
BC Hydro operates 30 hydroelectric facilities and three natural gas-fueled thermal power plants. In 2009 86.3 per cent of the province's electricity was produced by hydroelectric generating stations, which consist mostly of large hydroelectric dams on the Columbia and Peace Rivers. BC Hydro's various facilities generate between 43,000 and 54,000 gigawatt hours of electricity annually, depending on prevailing water levels. BC Hydro's capacity is about 11,000 megawatts.
Electricity is delivered through a network of 18,286 kilometers of transmission lines and 55,254 kilometers of distribution lines. For the 2008-2009 fiscal year, the domestic electric sales volume was 50,799 gigawatt hours and net income was $366 million, resulting in a return on equity of 11.75 per cent. As of March 31, 2009, BC Hydro and its subsidiaries employeed 5844 full-time and part-time employees.
Read more about BC Hydro: History, Modern Era, Organization and Financial Performance, Renewable Energy and Conservation Initiatives