Re: “Some Hydro customers face 130% increase,” letter, March 21.
B.C. Hydro has not yet made a decision about the E-Plus rate. We will file our application later this summer, and the B.C. Utilities Commission will make the final decision.
Before we file our application, we are reaching out to our customers and stakeholders to ask for feedback about the rate designs.
It was suggested to B.C. Hydro that we review the E-Plus rate, which was introduced in the 1980s and provides about a 50 per cent discount for electric heating. This discount was offered to customers who invested in backup heating and took the risk of potential power interruption to their electric heating systems. The E-Plus supply has never been interrupted.
B.C. Hydro is now asking for the opinions of the customers who would be affected by a change to the E-Plus rate. That’s why earlier this year we wrote to all E-Plus customers asking for their feedback on maintaining the rate or phasing it out. The feedback these customers provide, along with feedback from other stakeholders and our internal analyses, will influence whether or not B.C. Hydro proposes phasing out the E-Plus rate in the application to the B.C. Utilities Commission.
Information about the rate-design process, and the feedback B.C. Hydro has received to date, can be found online at bchydro.com/2015RDA.
Keith Anderson
Vice-president, customer service, B.C. Hydro
