By Bill Andrews, BCSEA Lawyer for BCUC and Tom Hackney, BCSEA Policy Advisor

FortisBC Energy [FEI] is proposing a three-year, small scale LNG storage facility in Kelowna after the BC Utilities Commission rejected FEI’s proposed Okanagan Capacity Upgrade Project in December 2023. That decision was the first time the BCUC rejected a utility gas pipeline expansion due to the likelihood that climate-action measures will curtail future gas load. (See our article here). The Panel said the $327.4 million pipeline expansion “has the potential to be a significant overreach of what is required to address the capacity shortfall [in the Okanagan region] over the next 20 years.” However, the Panel did state that steps must be taken to address the potential shortfall at times of peak demand.

FEI’s current proposal is to truck Liquefied Natural Gas from FEI’s Tilbury facility in the Lower Mainland to a new mobile LNG storage facility in Kelowna. FEI says this will provide sufficient capacity until winter of 2028/2029, and that in the meantime FEI will “assess how best to address the capacity requirements” in the longer term.

BCSEA is intervening in the BCUC proceeding. BCSEA’s recent information requests to FEI focused on demand-side measures to reduce the capacity requirements in the Okanagan region, the cost of FEI’s proposal, and FEI’s public engagement about the proposal. FEI’s responses are due on 24 October 2024.