Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Fortis B.C.

Kelowna's population is growing at a remarkable rate, and so are its energy needs, and the main energy supplier in the city FortisBC said some new builds are going to be delayed until the electrical infrastructure is in place.

The energy infrastructure in Kelowna needs some significant upgrades to make sure that as new buildings go up and more people move to the city their energy demands are met. The main issue is the Saucier substation in the middle of Kelowna where most of the city's large scale projects are being built. 

“We do understand the concerns some developers are having about connecting to power supply. We take these issues very seriously, and we're committed to addressing them as quickly as possible,” FortisBC’s senior communications advisor Gary Toft told iNFOnews.ca.

He said most of the small and medium size projects can be connected to power, but some larger scale projects won't be able to have power until 2027. 

"In central Kelowna, we're upgrading Saucier substation and that will be completed in 2027," Toft said. "There are some that we're asking to work with us and we will connect them as soon as possible, but we're not able to connect them today."

Toft said FortisBC has asked developers to continue to communicate and work with the company until the necessary upgrades are done in a few years. The projects that are going to be the most difficult to accommodate are ones that need more than 500 kilowatts.

He said FortisBC would make sure the power supply is ready when developers need it, even though some projects won't be able to be connected until 2027. 

“What we've been saying to them is if you are planning a new project that requires a large amount of power, more than 500 kilowatts for example, please reach out to us early in the planning process so we can work with you and make sure that we are ready with power supply when you need it,” he said.

The Saucier substation upgrade is coming alongside three other substation upgrades, and Toft said addressing Kelowna's energy needs is going to be a continuous effort for years to come. 

FortisBC hit its peak demand for energy the week of Feb. 10. The peak demand hour for natural gas was on Feb. 12 when the system delivered a total 19,523 megawatts of power, and the electricity system hit its peak on Feb. 11 when it delivered 739 megawatts of power.

The spike in energy usage was due to the cold weather since the temperature in Kelowna dropped to -12 Celsius. This year’s peak energy usage was significant, but less than the 21,763 megawatts delivered by FortisBC during the cold snap in 2024.

Toft didn’t say exactly how many megawatts of demand the system could handle.

“We've still got some room,” he said. “We're certainly taking a lot of steps to grow our electricity system.”

FortisBC is working on getting approval from the BC Utilities Commission for new substations and transmission lines and a decision is expected by spring.

“We're optimistic that we'll be moving forward with that. We've made a commitment to upgrade four substations in Kelowna and the transmission lines, and those will definitely be moving ahead,” he said.

FortisBC has a plan to build a liquified natural gas storage facility in Kelowna that has been met with some opposition from local residents.

The company plans on investing $157 million into infrastructure around the Okanagan by 2027.

FortisBC also put out a request for expressions of interest for clean energy projects around B.C.

“We were very pleased. We had about twice as many applications as we were expecting. Very strong response from the community,” he said. “A lot of that is for new electricity generation from renewable sources. So whether that be looking at things like renewable natural gas or hydro or wind, solar, those types of things.”

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Toft said it isn’t as simple as building as much infrastructure as quickly as possible since building too much infrastructure too quickly would mean customers would see increases in their bills to cover the expenses.

“We want to make sure that as the electricity system grows, we want to be mindful of the effect that can have on people's rates. And at the same time, make sure that we have the power that people need when they need it,” Toft said. 

Kelowna’s population is expected to grow from the roughly 160,000 residents today to 250,000 by 2040.

Toft said increasing demand isn’t a new issue and the company has been addressing it for years.

“We've been connecting a lot of residents in the City of Kelowna to power more than 10,000 new customers in the last five years, which is a 14 per cent increase,” he said.

As FortisBC moves towards cleaner energy sources, renewable natural gas that moves through the same system as fossil fuels is a key stepping stone in the process of phasing out fossil fuels.

“You'll see that we've increased the amount (of renewable natural gas) that we've designated as part of the gas system to two per cent. So people, when they look at their bills, see that they've been designated to have two per cent of renewable natural gas as part of their service now. And that will increase over time,” he said.

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