New B.C. hydro dams could be on the table: energy minister

B.C. Energy Minister Adrian Dix says he isn’t ruling out building more hydro dams to provide electricity as demand soars, including from industries like liquefied natural gas (LNG) and mining. 

In an interview with The Narwhal, Dix said he is confident B.C. can meet the challenge of electrifying emissions-heavy industries and a huge anticipated demand for electricity from other BC Hydro customers.

Dix said the cost of building solar and wind projects is coming down and there are potential opportunities to generate power from geothermal and hydrogen.

“We have the opportunity to make this happen here because we’ve got the backbone of the hydro system,” he said. “I don’t exclude looking at other dams as well in B.C. to create this sort of battery for that as well.”

Dix’s comments come as the $16-billion Site C dam project nears completion on B.C.’s Peace River, following huge cost overruns, delays and legal challenges from First Nations. Once the publicly funded dam is fully operational later this year, a decade after construction began, it will be capable of generating up to about 1,200 megawatts of electricity, boosting BC Hydro’s power supply by about eight per cent.

However, if Phase 2 of LNG Canada’s liquefied natural gas facility near Kitimat, B.C., moves forward and powers its operations with electricity — rather than natural gas — it would eat up about half of the Site C dam’s capacity. Government documents obtained by The Narwhal via freedom of information legislation show the facility estimated in March 2024 that it would need 585 megawatts to reduce Phase 2 carbon emissions to comply with B.C.’s climate targets. 

Adding two more LNG facilities planned for B.C.’s north coast — Ksi Lisims LNG and Cedar LNG — to the provincial power grid, along with LNG Canada Phase 2, would require a total of 1,400 megawatts of electricity, the documents show.

In an emailed response to questions, BC Hydro spokesperson Mora Scott said, “At this time, BC Hydro has no plans to build another dam.” Scott directed The Narwhal to BC Hydro’s 2021 list of new supply options. Those included wind, solar, geothermal, natural gas, run-of-river hydro, biomass and small storage hydro projects.

The Narwhal reached out to the Energy Ministry to seek clarification about Dix’s comments but did not receive a response.

B.C. shelved 10 potential hydro projects following 2010 Clean Energy Act

Over the years, B.C. has considered building more hydro dams, including on the Peace and Liard rivers in the province’s north.

But potential plans for more dams were shelved in 2010 when the previous B.C. Liberal government passed the Clean Energy Act around the same time it announced its intention to proceed with the Site C dam. 

The Clean Energy Act stripped the BC Utilities Commission of its watchdog role to determine whether building the Site C dam was in the public’s financial interest. The act also prohibited building about ten other potential hydro dams, including a fourth dam on the Peace River, a dam on the Liard River and dams on the Iskut and Homathko rivers.

B.C.’s decision to pull back from dam building followed a report from the World Commission on Dams, which studied hydro projects around the world for the World Bank. The commission found hydro dams emitted greenhouse gases, had huge social, environmental and economic impacts and disproportionately affected Indigenous Peoples.

The Site C dam flooded 128 kilometres of the Peace River and its tributaries, destroying some of Canada’s best farmland, habitat for more than 100 species at risk of extinction, culturally important sites for Treaty 8 First Nations and Indigenous hunting, fishing and trapping grounds. 

Dams on the Columbia River in the province’s southeast also inundated prime agricultural land, destroyed salmon runs and displaced First Nations, among many other impacts. 

B.C. may add more generating capacity to the Revelstoke dam: Dix

B.C. also has other options for adding additional power to the grid, including reclaiming power it sends to the U.S. as part of the Columbia River Treaty. 

The 61-year-old treaty regulates flood control, electricity generation, water flows and salmon restoration in the Columbia River basin on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border. After years of discussions, Canada and the U.S. announced an agreement in principle on a revamped treaty last July, but the changes were not finalized before U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January. Trump suspended negotiations in March, leaving the future of the treaty in limbo.

The B.C. government also recently approved nine new wind projects and a solar project.

Dix said the province is “strongly looking at” augmenting the capacity of the Revelstoke dam in B.C.’s southeast.

The Revelstoke dam currently supplies about 15 per cent of the electricity BC Hydro generates each year and there is room to add a sixth generating unit to the dam, which was completed in 1984. The addition would add about 500 megawatts of electricity to BC Hydro’s supply and take about three years to complete, BC Hydro has estimated. 

The Revelstoke 6 project, as it’s known, received an environmental assessment certificate in 2018 but BC Hydro suspended the project indefinitely in 2022. At the time, BC Hydro was “not forecasting a need for a sixth generating unit at Revelstoke dam over the next 20 years,” a BC Hydro spokesperson said in 2022 when the project was suspended.

Dix said having abundant hydro power makes renewable energy projects more attractive for the province because it provides a backstop. 

“Here in B.C., we have a great hydro system to build on, and that doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges and there are choices to make about that,” Dix told The Narwhal. “But it’s a chance to build our economy.”