BC Hydro announced today (Friday) that several electricity demand records were broken in 2021.
Northern BC Community Relations Manager for BC Hydro Bob Gammer said data showed that they had record peak loads last year due to extreme temperatures in both the summer and winter for extended periods of time.
“What happened in the Winter we had quite a deep cold snap that extended all the way across the province so even in the areas where we have the highest population they were in the cold and so with everybody needing to turn up the thermostat, or their baseboard heaters, and have the lights on because of the long nights and short days, we used a lot of electricity. So in December, we set our all-time record.”
Gammer added that the heat dome saw BC Hydro in late June set records for summertime consumption that were significantly higher than the record that was just set the year before.
“That heat dome of course set all-time record heat in British Columbia and Canada”. Gammer said. “We had a lot more usage of air-conditioning, so those kinds of devices running at full in over a lot more of BC than we’re usually used to seeing, we saw record demand in the summertime as well”.
BC Hydro said in a release that they are well-positioned to provide safe, clean, reliable electricity to their customers during increases in demand.