It’s well known that Kelowna is the fastest growing city in Canada and all signs indicate it’s growing even faster than expected.

The Pandosy and Midtown areas “are already approaching or even surpassing their 2040 growth targets” anticipated in the 2022 Official Community Plan, according to a City of Kelowna report. 

It grew 14% from 2016 to 2021 and 2.75% last year alone. The city is expected to reach a population of 250,000 by 2040 from its 159,857 today.

The City has already said it has little concern about supplying services to new growth with one possible question mark — gas and electricity.

Unlike most of the province that deals with BC Hydro, utilities in Kelowna are supplied by FortisBC, which acknowledges that it has work to do to meet wild growth rates.

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Neal Pobran, senior manager of community & Indigenous relations for Fortis, says the company is planning to spend $157 million over the next three years on substation and line upgrades to keep up with demand for electricity.

“Do we have enough power to supply (Kelowna)? Yeah, at this moment, we have enough power in the area,” he said. “We are in a time period where we are seeing a lot of growth and we want to make sure that as we plan this out, that the plan for (Kelowna’s) growth also goes along with our plan.”

They have already asked any developers or commercial or industrial operations to contact Fortis early in their planning so they know what’s coming.

“We like to say to our customers, talk to us early, talk to us often, so that we can ensure that we have an understanding of your needs, marry that with the city requirements so that then we can ensure that you have gas and electricity when you need it,” said James Wolfe, director of energy solutions.

It’s not just property developers, they are talking to large commercial and industrial as well as farming and greenhouse operators.

Proban said the company is well prepared to supply electricity but again acknowledged future challenges.

The provincial government has tasked BC Hydro and Fortis to move away from fossil fuels like natural gas to cleaner electricity. The province expects power demand to increase just 15% by 2030, but that could go even higher if electric vehicle use takes off. That’s a tall order which the provincial government and BC Hydro is hoping will be bolstered by private suppliers — the first time in 15 years it has called for more power supply.

It’s hoping large scale solar and wind projects will be proposed.

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But the more immediate concern is peak supply of natural gas. In late 2020, as part of its five-year plans, Fortis applied to the BC Utilities Commission to upgrade its gas pipeline from the South Okanagan into the Central Okanagan. It planned for 30 kilometres of new pipeline, a new pressure control station and a block valve station.

“(Fortis) forecasts a shortfall in its existing Interior Transmission System capacity, which needs to be addressed prior to the winter peak of 2023/2024. The Okanagan Capacity Upgrade Project would add adequate capacity to (Fortis’s) existing Interior Transmission System so that (Fortis) can continue to provide long-term safe and reliable gas service to its customers in Okanagan region.”

The request was denied. The commission said before doing all that work, Fortis should first work with customers to reduce their use of natural gas and lower capacity. Capacity is most important — that means having enough gas if everyone was using it at the same time.

That’s exactly what happened, exactly when Fortis said it would.

“Just this past January, we had a very cold, cold winter peak. We hit near our maximum amount on our electric system. Then gas side, provincial wide, we did as well,” Proban said.

The company said in a statement to its website it was “disappointed” its plan was rejected. Fortis is already working on its next plans and expects a lot more work will be required.

“While the project was denied, it was interesting, they agreed that we're going to have... a capacity shortfall for gas in the winters of 2026, 2027. So what we have to do now is we're working on another plan that we're gonna file at the end of July with our commission, that is that short-term mitigation filing. And that will say, how are we gonna meet the gas demand for 2026 and 2027? So you can see both of these systems (electricity and gas) have to work together and that's a lot of what we're doing.”

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