BC Electric

BC Hydro

Type	Crown Corporation
Industry	Electric utility
Founded	1961
Headquarters	333 Dunsmuir Street Vancouver, British Columbia V6B 5R3
Area served	British Columbia
Key people	Chris O'Riley, President
Products	Electricity generation, transmission and distribution
Revenue	C$4.898 billion (2013)
Net income	C$509 million (2013)
Total assets	C$23.7 billion (2013)
Owner	Government of British Columbia
Number of employees	6128 (2011)
Website	www.bchydro.com

The BC Hydro and Power Authority is a Canadian electric utility in the province of British Columbia, generally known simply as BC Hydro. It is the main electric distributor, serving 1.8 million customers in most areas, with the exception of the City of New Westminster, where the city runs its own electrical department and the Kootenay region, where FortisBC, a subsidiary of Fortis Inc. directly provides electric service to 213,000 customers and supplies municipally owned utilities in the same area. As a provincial Crown corporation, BC Hydro reports to the BC Ministry of Energy and Mines, and is regulated by the British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC). Its mandate is to generate, purchase, distribute and sell electricity.

BC Hydro operates 32 hydroelectric facilities and three natural gas-fueled thermal power plants. As of 2014, 95 per cent of the province's electricity was produced by hydroelectric generating stations, which consist mostly of large hydroelectric dams on the Columbia and Peace Rivers. BC Hydro's various facilities generate between 43,000 and 54,000 gigawatt hours of electricity annually, depending on prevailing water levels. BC Hydro's capacity is about 11,000 megawatts.

Electricity is delivered through a network of 18,286 kilometers of transmission lines and 55,254 kilometers of distribution lines. For the 2013-2014 fiscal year, the domestic electric sales volume was 53,018 gigawatt hours, revenue was $5.392 billion and net income was $549 million.

BC Hydro was created in 1961 when the government of British Columbia, under Premier WAC Bennett, passed the BC Hydro Act. This act led to the amalgamation of BC Electric Company and the BC Power Commission, and the creation of the British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority (BCHPA).

The BC Power Commission was established with the Electric Power Act in 1945 by Premier John Hart. The mandate of the Power Commission was to amalgamate existing power and generating facilities across the province not served by BC Electric, and to extend service to the many smaller communities without power.