August 26, 2025

By Tom Hackney and Bill Andrews

On August 25, 2025, the BCUC accepted the ten long-term electricity purchase agreements (EPAs) arising from BC Hydro’s 2024 competitive call for power. The 2024 call for power was a “near-term action” of BC Hydro’s Updated 2021 Integrated Resource Plan, that the Commission accepted in March 2024. BC Hydro had filed the EPAs with the BCUC in February 2025. The EPAs – nine for onshore wind generation and one for onshore solar generation — are for approximately 4,830 gigawatt hours of energy per year and have an average weighted levelized bid price of $74 per megawatt hour at the point of connection. (This figure was adjusted by BC Hydro in the Net Metering Services Rate proceeding to yield a 2025 “long run marginal cost” of energy of $97 per MWh at the point of delivery to customers, in fiscal 2025 dollars and including network upgrades, variable integration, and transmission losses.)

Most of the contention in the proceeding concerned the alleged inadequacy of BC Hydro’s consultation with First Nations regarding BC Hydro’s entry into the EPAs. In the end, the BCUC determined that BC Hydro’s decision to delegate procedural aspects of First Nations consultation to project proponents was appropriate in this case. As the Commission did not allow interveners in its proceeding regarding the EPAs, BCSEA filed a letter of comment dated May 1, 2025.