BC Hydro will build more than $3 billion in capital projects on Vancouver Island over the next decade to upgrade and expand the electricity grid and provide clean power for homes and businesses in growing communities.

The spending is part of BC Hydro’s updated 10-year capital plan announced in January, which commits $36 billion to regional and community infrastructure.

These construction projects are forecasted to support 10,500 to 12,500 jobs annually, on average, and will increase and maintain BC Hydro’s capital investments as major projects such as Site C are completed.

The plan reflects growing demand for electricity across sectors due to population growth and housing construction, increased industrial development, and people and businesses switching from fossil fuels to clean electricity, among other factors.

Vancouver Island is experiencing significant growth in Victoria, Saanich, Langford, Colwood and Nanaimo. To meet growth in these areas, BC Hydro is investing in several projects including:

• building a new substation in the Langford area that will power an additional 40,000 to 70,000 homes and be in service by 2030;
• replacing end-of-life transmission underground cables that service Victoria, Esquimalt and Saanich, increasing capacity more than 60 per cent, enough to power more than 100,000 additional homes;
• major distribution investments to increase power-line capacity to support new residential housing and anticipated residential load growth in Bear Mountain and Langford Heights; Victoria, Oak Bay and Esquimalt; and North and South Nanaimo.
• upgrades of transmission capacity to Vancouver Island by replacing old undersea cables with new cables by the Gulf Islands; and
• seismic upgrade projects to BC Hydro’s three dams within the Campbell River system – John Hart, Strathcona and Ladore – to maintain downstream public safety and to ensure a continuing reliable local supply of energy, with all three projects planned to be in service by 2030.

BC Hydro is also investigating the feasibility of grid-scale batteries on Vancouver Island to provide additional capacity to address anticipated growth and improve reliability in the region.