ORDER NUMBER
G-341-22
IN THE MATTER OF
the Utilities Commission Act, RSBC 1996, Chapter 473
and
British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority
and
FortisBC Inc.
and
Nelson Hydro
BEFORE:
E. B. Lockhart, Panel Chair
D. M. Morton, Commissioner
on November 28, 2022
ORDER
WHEREAS:
A. On November 18, 2022, the Lieutenant Governor in Council approved Order in Council (OIC) No. 571, which enacted the Direction to the British Columbia Utilities Commission Respecting Residential and Commercial Customer Account Credits (Direction);
B. The Direction requires the British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC) to issue various final orders, within 10 days of the enactment of the Direction, to the British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority (BC Hydro), FortisBC Inc. (FBC), and Nelson Hydro to enable the provision of residential and commercial customer account credits. The Direction also requires the BCUC to order several changes to BC Hydro’s regulatory accounts;
C. On August 31, 2021, BC Hydro filed its Fiscal 2023 to Fiscal 2025 Revenue Requirements Application (RRA) with the BCUC pursuant to sections 44.2, and 58 to 61 of the Utilities Commission Act (UCA). The RRA is being reviewed by the BCUC in a separate ongoing proceeding;
D. The terms used in this Order, unless otherwise defined within this Order, have the same meaning given to them in the Direction where applicable; and
E. The BCUC makes the following directives as required by OIC No. 571 and the Direction. The BCUC has not conducted a regulatory review.
NOW THEREFORE pursuant to OIC No. 571, the Direction, and sections 59 to 61 and 63 of the UCA, the BCUC orders as follows:
1. BC Hydro must provide:
i) an account credit, as set out in section 3(a) of the Direction, to each of its commercial customers, as defined under “authority commercial customer” in the Direction, on any of the customer’s open commercial customer accounts with BC Hydro;
ii) an account credit of $100 to each of its residential customers, as defined under “authority residential customer” in the Direction, on any of the customer’s open residential customer accounts with BC Hydro. BC Hydro must make reasonable efforts to ensure that, if a BC Hydro residential customer holds more than one open residential account with BC Hydro, only one account credit is provided to the BC Hydro residential customer; and
iii) one or more account credits totalling $19,265,701 to FBC.
2. BC Hydro must provide account credits to FBC in the listed amounts below if BC Hydro is satisfied that the following utilities agree to the conditions set out in section 5(2) of the Direction:
| Utility |
Account Credit |
| Corporation of the City of Grand Forks |
$299,622 |
| Corporation of the City of Penticton |
$2,729,069 |
| Corporation of the District of Summerland |
$746,292 |
| Nelson Hydro |
$775,483 |
3. BC Hydro must provide an account credit of $4,933,545 to New Westminster if BC Hydro is satisfied that New Westminster agrees to the conditions set out in section 7(2) of the Direction.
4. BC Hydro is authorized to establish a customer credit regulatory account, transfer $320 million from the Trade Income Deferral Account to this account, and defer the total amount of account credits issued by BC Hydro in accordance with directives 1, 2, and 3 of this order to this account.
5. BC Hydro is authorized to transfer $6 million from the Trade Income Deferral Account to the Customer Crisis Fund Regulatory Account.
6. BC Hydro is authorized to establish an inflationary pressures regulatory account, transfer $74 million from the Trade Income Deferral Account to this account, and defer to this account the variance between forecast and actual costs for the period from April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2025 for the following:
i) labour costs as set out in line 20 in Schedule 5 of Appendix A to the RRA, other than the operating cost portion of current service pension costs;
ii) vegetation management costs as set out in Table 5-27 of the RRA, other than labour costs related to vegetation management; and
iii) fuel costs as set out in lines 5 and 6 on page 5E-44 of chapter 5E of the RRA, other than the portion of fuel costs allocated to capital overhead.
7. FBC must provide:
i) an account credit, as set out in section 4(a) of the Direction, to each of its commercial customers, as defined under “utility commercial customer” in the Direction, on the customer’s commercial customer account with FBC, unless that utility commercial customer account was closed after October 1, 2022;
ii) an account credit of $100 to each of its residential customers, as defined under “utility residential customer” in the Direction, on any of the customer’s open residential customer accounts with FBC. FBC must make reasonable efforts to ensure that, if a FBC residential customer holds more than one open residential account with FBC, only one account credit is provided to the FBC residential customer; and
iii) an account credit of $417,254 to Nelson Hydro.
8. FBC must provide the account credits to the following utilities in the listed amounts below if FBC receives the corresponding account credits from BC Hydro:
| Utility |
Account Credit |
| Corporation of the City of Grand Forks |
$299,622 |
| Corporation of the City of Penticton |
$2,729,069 |
| Corporation of the District of Summerland |
$746,292 |
| Nelson Hydro |
$775,483 |
9. Nelson Hydro must provide:
i) an account credit, as set out in section 6(a) of the Direction, to each of its commercial customers in its rural service area, as defined under “Nelson (rural) commercial customer” in the Direction, on the customer’s commercial customer account with Nelson Hydro in relation to its rural service area; and
ii) an account credit of $100 to each of its residential customers in its rural service area, as defined under “Nelson (rural) residential customer” in the Direction, on any of the customer’s open residential customer accounts with Nelson Hydro in relation to its rural service area. Nelson Hydro must make reasonable efforts to ensure that, if a Nelson Hydro residential customer in its rural service area holds:
a. more than one open residential account with Nelson Hydro in relation to its rural service area, only one account credit is provided to the Nelson Hydro (rural) residential customer, or
b. one or more open residential accounts with Nelson Hydro in relation to its rural service area and one or more open residential customer accounts with Nelson Hydro in relation to its urban service area, no account credit is provided to the Nelson Hydro (rural) residential customer.
DATED at the City of Vancouver, in the Province of British Columbia, this 28th day of November 2022.
BY ORDER
Original signed by:
E. B. Lockhart
Commissioner