FortisBC Integrated Resource Plan Study (2005)

The objective for the project was to develop a 20-year integrated resource plan on behalf of FortisBC for submission to the BC Utilities Commission (BCUC). The plan was a study of FortisBC’s load and resource requirements over the period 2005 to 2024. The plan was consistent with the BCUC Resource Planning Guidelines and the BC Energy Plan.

The project was divided into five stages: interviewing, planning, detail design, coordination and data collection; scenario development; integrated resource plan development draft; public consultation; and final integrated resource plan preparation. the economic potential, and the achievable potential electrical energy savings.

We combined historical demand and energy use with projected changes in FortisBC’s service area’s electricity use characteristics to model different planning scenarios for the FortisBC electric service area (British Columbia Southern Interior and West Kootenay Districts). Each scenario was able to forecast peak electricity demand in the service area, electricity energy requirements, forecast costs of different peak supply resources, forecast costs of different energy supply resources, and determine the optimum match of supply and demand. This scenario approach was developed to provide insight into the various purchasing strategies that could be used to mitigate price shocks with more sophisticated load projections to predict FortisBC's resource cost over a 20-year period.