The B.C. government has appointed a new chairman for BC Hydro and is pushing back the due date for Hydro’s 20-year integrated resource plan by eight months to allow the utility to adjust for the power needs of the liquefied natural gas industry.
BC Hydro board member Stephen Bellringer has been appointed chairman of the board, replacing former chairman Dan Doyle. Doyle replaced Ken Boessenkool as Premier Christy Clark’s chief of staff, after Boessenkool resigned September 23 following an alleged indiscretion at a bar.
Bellringer is the former chairman of Retrocom Real Estate Investment Trust and a former director of Canadian Hotel Income Properties. He is also past chairman of the University of Windsor and the Canadian Gas Association, past vice-chairman of the BC Business Council, and has served as director for the Vancouver Board of Trade.
Coinciding with Bellringer’s appointment was an announced delay of the due date for BC Hydro’s 20-year integrated resource plan. The plan, which sets out the utility’s long-range strategy for meeting future energy needs, was due December 3.
That submission date has been pushed back to August 3, 2013, to give the utility time to make adjustments in accordance with changes to the Clean Energy Act related to the LNG industry.
LNG plants will require massive amounts of electricity. The B.C. government plans to amend the Clean Energy Act to allow natural gas to be burned to produce at least some of the electricity that will be needed to power the plants.
The act needs to be amended because it currently requires that all new power generation to be carbon neutral.
