Orders

ORDER NUMBER

G-144-23

 

IN THE MATTER OF

the Utilities Commission Act, RSBC 1996, Chapter 473

 

and

 

Creative Energy Sen̓áḵw Limited Partnership

Application for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity for

the Sen̓áḵw District Energy System

 

BEFORE:

C. M. Brewer, Panel Chair

A. K. Fung, KC, Commissioner

E. B. Lockhart, Commissioner

 

on June 14, 2023

 

ORDER

WHEREAS:

 

A.      On October 20, 2022, Creative Energy Sen̓áḵw Limited Partnership (CESLP) applied to the British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC) pursuant to sections 45 and 46 of the Utilities Commission Act for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) to construct, own and operate a thermal energy system to provide heating and cooling to the Senáḵw Development, which is on Sen̓áḵw Lands (Application);

B.      The Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) owns the Sen̓áḵw Lands as reserve lands through an agreement with the federal government;

C.      The proposed thermal energy system is a low carbon electrified energy system that provides cooling to the Senáḵw Development with electric chillers, and provides heating with captured waste heat from the cooling equipment and reclaimed heat from a Metro Vancouver main sewer line using high-temperature heat pumps (Senáḵw DES);

D.      By Order G-346-22, dated November 30, 2022, the BCUC established a regulatory timetable for the review of the Application, which included public notification, intervener registration, one round of BCUC and intervener information requests (IRs), and further process to be determined;

E.       On January 9, 2023, the Residential Consumer Intervener Association (RCIA) registered as an intervener in the proceeding;

F.       By Order G-42-23, dated March 3, 2023, the BCUC established a further regulatory timetable for the review of the Application, which included a second round of BCUC and intervener IRs, and final and reply arguments;

G.      On April 13, 2023, CESLP filed responses to BCUC and intervener IRs No. 2. CESLP provided a draft agreement with Metro Vancouver for sewage access (Sewage Access Agreement) as Attachment 7.1.1 to its responses to BCUC IR No. 2, and stated, in response to BCUC IR 2, 7.2, that it expects to have a finalized Sewage Access Agreement in Summer 2023;

H.      By Order G-93-23, dated April 24, 2023, the BCUC amended the regulatory timetable to include a third round of IRs, submissions on further process and a CESLP reply submission on further process;

I.         On May 25, 2023, CESLP filed responses to BCUC and intervener IRs No. 3;

J.        By June 1, 2023, CESLP and RCIA filed submissions on further process. CESLP submits that the evidentiary record is sufficient and the BCUC should establish a regulatory timeline to proceed to the argument phase.  RCIA considers the evidentiary record to be adequate to support proceeding to the argument phase, however, submits that if the Sewage Access Agreement fails to materialize, or if the final agreement substantially deviates from the draft provided, RCIA requests an additional round of IRs to examine these alterations and assess their implications on the proposed CPCN;

K.       On June 6, 2023, CESLP filed its reply submission on further process stating that it does not agree with RCIA that further IRs should be allowed. CESLP submits that the BCUC should reject this request and not allow any further potential delays in the proceeding and that a requirement for provision of the executed Sewage Access Agreement in advance of the BCUC decision is sufficient; and

L.       The BCUC determines that pending the filing of an executed copy of the Sewage Access Agreement by CESLP as directed below and any further regulatory process that the BCUC may establish in connection therewith, the establishment of a further regulatory timetable to include CESLP and intervener final arguments is warranted. 

 

NOW THEREFORE the BCUC orders as follows:

 

1.       A further regulatory timetable for the review of the Application is established, as set out in Appendix A to this order.

2.       CESLP is directed, by no later than September 1, 2023, to file the Sewage Access Agreement once executed or provide an update on the status of the Sewage Access Agreement.

 

 

DATED at the City of Vancouver, in the Province of British Columbia, this          14^th          day of June 2023.

 

BY ORDER

 

Original signed by:

 

C. M. Brewer

Commissioner

 

Attachment

Creative Energy Sen̓áḵw Limited Partnership

Application for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity

for the Sen̓áḵw District Energy System