Orders

ORDER NUMBER

G-34-20

IN THE MATTER OF

the Utilities Commission Act, RSBC 1996, Chapter 473

and

Sustainable Services Ltd.

Stream A Registration for the Westhills Thermal Energy System

BEFORE:

D. M. Morton, Panel Chair

B. A. Magnan, Commissioner

R. D. Revel, Commissioner

on February 27, 2020

ORDER

WHEREAS:

A.      On September 4, 2018, Sustainable Services Ltd. (SSL) filed with the British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC) an application to register the Westhills Thermal Energy System (Westhills TES) as a Stream A TES (Application) in accordance with the BCUC Thermal Energy Systems Regulatory Framework Guidelines (TES Guidelines);

B.      The Westhills TES is a geo-exchange system comprising of 212 vertically drilled wells, with water-to-water heat pumps and heat exchangers, located at the Primary Energy Centre (PEC). The Westhills TES also uses centralized natural gas boilers and a waste heat recovery system connected to the Westhills Arena, a nearby ice rink, owned by the City of Langford. The PEC is centrally located at 3011 Langford Lake Road, Langford, British Columbia, and a network of pipes distributes the energy throughout the Westhills Community from the PEC. End-users connect to the distribution network via on-site water-source heat pumps, which provide heating or cooling;

C.      The Westhills TES serves 409 single-family homes, 4 town home strata customers with a combined total of 32 units, and a condo strata with 68 units;

D.      On August 28, 2014, the BCUC issued Order G-127-14 approving the TES Guidelines and on March 2, 2015, revisions to the TES Guidelines were approved by Order G-27-15;

E.       Under Section 2.1 of the revised TES Guidelines, a Stream A TES is defined as: “An On-Site TES with an Initial Capital Cost above $500,000 but less than $15,000,000 is exempt from sections 44.1, 45 to 46 and 59 to 61 of the UCA [Utilities Commission Act]. TES Providers are required to register Stream A TES prior to building or otherwise acquiring the Stream A TES;”

F.       Three rounds of BCUC Staff Questions were issued to SSL on October 4, 2018, April 9 and June 11, 2019. SSL provided responses to Staff Questions between February 4 and July 5, 2019;

G.     By Order G-318-19, dated December 9, 2019, the BCUC established a written hearing process and a regulatory timetable to review the Application. The Regulatory Timetable included intervener registration, one round of information requests (IR) and submissions on further process;

H.      On February 5, 2020, SSL requested an extension from February 12 to February 28, 2020, to file its responses to IR No. 1. By Letter dated February 7, 2020, the BCUC granted an extension of two days to SSL to file its responses to IR No. 1 by February 14, 2020;

I.        On February 16, 2020, SSL submitted responses to IR No. 1; and

J.        The BCUC has reviewed SSL’s responses to IR No. 1 and considers that amending the Regulatory Timetable is warranted.

NOW THEREFORE, the BCUC orders that the Regulatory Timetable established by Order G-318-19 is amended and attached as Appendix A to this order.

DATED at the City of Vancouver, in the Province of British Columbia, this       27^th    day of February 2020.

BY ORDER

Original signed by:

D. M. Morton

Commissioner

Attachment

Sustainable Services Ltd.

Stream A Registration for the Westhills Thermal Energy System