Operations
BCTC manages over 300 substations and 18,000 km of transmission lines throughout the province of British Columbia and has over 350 employees, and is located in the Bentall Building of Downtown Vancouver with assets of over 2.5 billion.
Its transmission system was built between 1940 and 1980, and maintains over 60 generating facilities in British Columbia. Energy is generated by hydroelectric generating stations that are owned and operated by BC Hydro. Seventy percent of BC’s power supply is provided by large reservoirs, and generating stations from the Peace and Columbia regions of British Columbia.
Power is delivered throughout the province through high-voltage lines from its generation facilities to the local substations located throughout the mainland and Vancouver Island facilities where it is distributed and transmitted to local regional commercial businesses and private homes. Most of British Columbia’s electricity supply comes from facilities in the Interior of BC, while 70 to 80 per cent of demand for electricity is in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island.
BCTC manages BC’s publicly owned transmission system, which includes transmission towers, high-voltage lines, substations and rights-of-way across the province. The transmission lines, cables and substations move electricity across the province which are monitored and controlled from one main control centre and one backup control centre. While much of this activity is automated through computerized Energy Management Systems, operating staff at the control centres work around the clock to respond to varying external conditions or system disturbances and ensure high levels of safety and reliability. The control centre is a state-of-the-art facility which connects 31 independent power projects and more than 830 MW since 2003.
Read more about this topic: BC Transmission Corporation
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)