Editing BC Hydro (section)

==History==
[[File:Buntzen Lake Power Plant number one.jpg|left|thumb|Buntzen Lake Power Plant #1 in 1907 from BC Electric Company, a company which would ultimately become BC Hydro through legislative action.]]
BC Hydro was created in 1961 when the government of British Columbia, under Premier [[W. A. C. Bennett]], passed the ''BC Hydro Act''. This act led to the expropriation of the BC Electric Company and its merging with the BC Power Commission, to create the British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority (BCHPA).<ref name="Gaslights135">{{cite book|author=B.C. Hydro. Power Pioneers |title=Gaslights to gigawatts : A human history of BC Hydro and its predecessors |location=Vancouver |publisher=Hurricane Press |year=1998 |page=135 |isbn=0-9698845-2-4}}</ref>

The BC Power Commission had been established with the Electric Power Act in 1945 by [[John Hart (Canadian politician)|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.<ref>B.C. Hydro. Power Pioneers (1998), ''op. cit.'', p. 73.</ref>
[[File:Electra Building.jpg|thumb|upright|In 1957 [[BC Electric Company]] moved from its Carrall Street headquarters to a modern 21 storey building on Burrard Street. In 1998, it was converted to condominiums and renamed the [[Electra Building]].]]
[[File:Preserved Vancouver CCF-Brill T48A trolleybus 2416 on Dunbar Diversion on 2010 fan trip.jpg|thumb|A 1954 [[J. G. Brill Company|Brill]] trolley bus that has been preserved in a paint scheme adopted by BC Hydro in 1962. Note Hydro logo on front.]]
[[BC Electric Company]] began as the [[British Columbia Electric Railway]] (streetcar and lighting utility) in [[Victoria, British Columbia|Victoria]], [[Vancouver]] and [[New Westminster]] in 1897. Power was generated by coal-fired steam plants. Increasing demand in the [[Edwardian era|Edwardian]] boom years meant BC Electric sought expansion through developing Hydro power at [[Buntzen Lake]], and later at [[Stave Lake]]. Sensible growth and expansion of the power, streetcar and [[coal gas]] utilities meant that BC Electric was a major company in the region.

Also about this time, sawmills and factories converted to electricity, further increasing the demand for electric power. BC Electric developed more hydro stations in the province. Similarly, small towns also built and operated their own power stations. More power transmission lines were also built. Dams and hydro-electric generating stations were built on Vancouver Island on the [[Puntledge River|Puntledge]], [[Jordan River, British Columbia|Jordan]], and [[Elk River (British Columbia)|Elk]] rivers in the 1920s.

By the time of the [[First World War]], private cars and [[share taxi|jitney]]s were beginning to affect streetcar traffic. New dams were planned, including the [[Bridge River Power Project|diversion from the Bridge River to Seton Lake]], near [[Lillooet, British Columbia|Lillooet]], but the [[Great Depression in Canada|economic depression of the 1930s]] halted this business expansion. Also with the depression came an increase in the ridership, and a decrease in the maintenance of the streetcar system. In 1947, the BC Power Commission completed the John Hart Generating Station at [[Campbell River, British Columbia|Campbell River]]. In the early 1950s the ageing streetcars and interurban trains were replaced by electric [[trolley bus]]es, and diesel buses. BC Electric finally completed the [[Bridge River Power Project|Bridge River Generating Station]] in 1960.

In 1958, BC Electric began construction of the oil-fired (later converted to natural gas) [[Burrard Generating Station]] near [[Port Moody]]. It opened in 1961 and operated only intermittently when needed. In 2001, it represented over 9% of BC Hydro's gross metered generation. The gas turbines at the Burrard Generating Station were decommissioned in 2016 to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, and the plant continues to be used as [[synchronous condenser]] facility.

On August 1, 1961, just days after company president Dal Grauer died, the BC government passed the legislation which changed BC Electric from a private company to a [[Government-owned corporation#Canada|crown corporation]] known as BC Hydro. 

The new corporation's responsibility including running the portions of the BC Electric Railway route still operating, for mass transit operation of the [[Trolley buses in Vancouver|Vancouver trolley bus system]] (comprising a portion of the urban bus routes in Vancouver), as well as all the electric generation, transmission, and distribution operations. 

In 1988, BC Hydro sold its Gas Division which distributed [[natural gas]] in the Lower Mainland and Victoria to Inland Natural Gas. Inland changed its name to BC Gas, and was sold and changed name again to [[Terasen Gas]] in 2003. In 2007 Terasen sold the gas operation to [[FortisBC]].

In 1988, BC Hydro's remaining railway operations were sold to the [[Southern Railway of British Columbia]].<ref>SRY Rail Link Website [https://www.sryraillink.com/about-us/history/#:~:text=The%20provincial%20government%20took%20over,a%20Washington%20Company%20in%201994. History - Southern Railway of British Columbia]Retrieved 2024-10-12</ref> BC Hydro continues to own the railbed of the former BC Electric Railway interurban route through Burnaby and New Westminster (on which a portion of the [[SkyTrain_(Vancouver)|Skytrain]] [[Expo_Line_(SkyTrain)|Expo Line]] was built), as well as the railway from North Delta through Surrey, Langley, and Abbotsford all the way to Chilliwack (which continues to be operated by Southern Rail). A segment of the BC Hydro route through Langley is also leased to [[BC Rail]] to link the [[Canadian National Railway]] mainline, [[BNSF_Railway|Burlington Northern Santa Fe]], and the [[Roberts Bank Superport]].<ref>City of Vancouver Archives [https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/uploads/r/null/8/5/c/85c952a6177e1ee3a232e53e5c1469d7099016a501bafd290c9a85a09c136d0e/deaab9ca-54ab-48f1-b9b1-2cdefe077ee8-MAP417.jpg?token=3a4b7e94813241de0f2bb8c43ccea2007e573903d2270ff3dc4e43c4be1391c5 Railroad Map of Greater Vancouver]Retrieved 2024-10-12</ref>

In 2003 the BC government passed several pieces of legislation to redefine and regulate power utilities in British Columbia. The Transmission Corporation Act created the [[British Columbia Transmission Corporation]] (BCTC) as an independent transmission provider, but which only lasted until 2010 until being re-merged back into BC Hydro.

Also in 2003, BC Hydro privatized and outsourced many of its support functions, including 1540 of its employees in its Customer Service, Westech IT Services, Network Computer Services, Human Resources, Financial Systems, Purchasing, and Building and Office Services groups. These services were first outsourced to [[Accenture]],<ref>[http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/PubDocs/bcdocs/359905/backgrounder.pdf BC Hydro-Accenture Backgrounder]</ref><!--As of what date and was there a bidding process? Public controversy over Accenture's role should be mentioned.--> and later to [[Telus Communications|Telus]] and [[Fujitsu]].

In the final week of August, 2015, the company experienced what it then described as its largest blackout event after a windstorm hit the [[British Columbia Coast|South Coast]] on August 29–30, 2015.<ref>{{cite web |last= |first= |date=September 1, 2015 |title=B.C. storm: 'Largest outage event' in BC Hydro history |url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-storm-hydro-1.3210919 |accessdate=January 29, 2018 |publisher=[[CBC News]]}}</ref><ref name="metro news">{{cite web |last=Fletcher |first=Thandi |date=September 1, 2015 |title=Widespread power outage was largest in BC Hydro history |url=http://www.metronews.ca/news/vancouver/2015/09/01/thousands-of-bc-hydro-customers-still-without-power.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180129140707/http://www.metronews.ca/news/vancouver/2015/09/01/thousands-of-bc-hydro-customers-still-without-power.html |archive-date=January 29, 2018 |accessdate=January 29, 2018 |publisher=[[Metro International|Metro News]]}}</ref>  It affected more than 710,000 residents living in the [[Lower Mainland]] and [[Vancouver Island]] regions of the Canadian province of [[British Columbia]]<ref>{{cite web |last=Pawson |first=Chad |date=August 29, 2015 |title=B.C. Lower Mainland storm cuts power to 400,000 homes |url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-lower-mainland-storm-cuts-power-to-400-000-homes-1.3208698 |accessdate=January 29, 2018 |publisher=[[CBC News]]}}</ref><ref name="metro news" /> and lasted more than 72 hours for some neighbourhoods.<ref name="metro news" /> This blackout was surpassed by a outage caused by a 2018 winter storm that left 750,000 without power.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Azpiri |first=Jon |date=2019-01-02 |title=BC Hydro says December windstorm was the most damaging in its history |url=https://globalnews.ca/news/4806906/bc-hydro-december-windstorm-most-damaging-in-history/ |access-date=2025-04-27 |website=Global News |language=en-US}}</ref>