British Columbia said it had received an avalanche of bids in response to its first clean power procurement in 15 years and unveiled plans for whole-building energy retrofits in multi-unit residential buildings (MURBs) in two separate announcements this week.
On Wednesday, provincial utility BC Hydro announced it had received offers for 9,000 gigawatt-hours (GWh) per year, three times as much power as it was looking to buy, from 21 independent power producers across the province. A day earlier, the province’s CleanBC program launched a whole-building retrofit program for apartments, condominiums, and co-ops. It offers rebates and energy coaching to private owners, strata councils, and equity co-op boards looking to add heat pumps, LED lighting, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, or better windows or ventilation.
“We need more clean energy to power our homes, businesses, and industries, to power growing communities and to power our future,” said Minister of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation Josie Osborne, referring to a package of bid responses that consisted of 70% wind projects, 20% solar, and 10% bioenergy and hydropower. The utility will now evaluate the bids and announce final selections in December, with projects expected to go online beginning in fall, 2028.
The announcement included C$1.4 billion for three new Vancouver-area substations, about $200 million to expand or upgrade four existing substations, and investments in new transmission and distribution capacity.
“From record wildfires to historic droughts, British Columbians are seeing the impacts of climate change on their communities and they’re ready to switch from fossil fuels to clean energy, while making their homes more efficient and saving on energy bills,” Osborne said in the MURBs Retrofit Program announcement. Her ministry said the typical 65-unit rental building could save $16,250 per year or $250 per unit per year by switching from central gas heating to in-suite heat pumps; the average 130-unit condo could save $18,00 per year or $140 per unit per year by changing out electric baseboards for the more efficient technology.
“Energy efficiency programs defer the need for additional capital infrastructure, helping to keep rates affordable and offer additional flexibility to our electricity system,” BC Hydro President and CEO Chris O’Riley said in the release. “But equally important, programs like this one and the many others we offer provide our customers with the opportunity to save energy and money.”
Evan Pivnick, clean energy program manager at Clean Energy Canada, said the independent power procurement is just the start. “This call was explicitly looking for projects that can start operation as early as 2028, meaning they had to be at a more advanced stage in order to enter,” he said in a release. “With calls for power expected at least every two years going forward, we can expect a far greater number of projects are yet to be proposed.”
(Pivnick is a member of the community sounding board for The Energy Mix’s weekly Heat & Power edition.)
Kari Hyde, senior analyst, buildings at the Calgary-based Pembina Institute, said the MURBs Retrofit Program “fills a gap for market rental, condo, and co-op buildings, which have been historically underserved by retrofit programs.” She added that the program “will help prepare buildings for the new energy economy” while driving down the building sector’s climate pollution and dependence on fossil fuels.
