A public open house on B.C. Hydro's plan for meeting the province's energy needs over the next 20 years will be held in Prince George next week.
The event is set for Tuesday at the Ramada from 6 to 9 p.m.
Perhaps the most controversial of the proposals set out in the plan is to build the Site C project on the Peace River near Fort St. John, 476 kilometres north of Prince George.
Hydro says the dam would add 5,100 gigawatt hours of annual energy and 1,100 megawatts of dependable capacity to the system but critics say it would come at significant environmental cost as it would create an 83-kilometre long reservoir behind the structure.
Other recommendations include:
- developing options to acquire up to 2,000 gigawatt hours from clean energy producers for projects that would come into service between 2016 and 2018;
- developing options for additional clean energy resources, backed up by gas-fired generation for electricity that could be delivered in the 2019 - 2020 timeframe;
- building new 500-kilovolt transmission lines from Prince George to Terrace and Kitimat and from the Peace River region to Prince George.
The province's electricity demand will increase by 50 per cent over the next 20 years, Hydro estimates.
The entire plan, a discussion guide and an online feedback form can be found by going to www.bchydro.com and clicking on the "Energy in B.C." tab, then "Integrated Resource Plan" at the bottom of the page.
