By Global News

New report on B.C. Hydro says consumers are overpaying bigtime

Feb 14, 2019 | 6:42 AM

VICTORIA — BC Hydro ratepayers are expected to overpay by billions of dollars for electricity it doesn’t need, due to costly and unnecessary contracts with independent power producers (IPP), according to a new report.

Energy Minister Michelle Mungall commissioned the independent report, written by former B.C. Treasury Board director Ken Davidson, which pinned the blame for the power deals on the previous BC Liberal government.

The $16.2 billion estimate in the report is believed to be conservative.

Mungall said some of the contracts are 20-year deals, while it could be up to 60 years before some of them come up for renewal.

Many of the IPPs, she said, were BC Liberal donors.

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Titled “Zapped,” the report made three key conclusions: that BC Hydro bought power it didn’t need, and that had the wrong energy profile; that the power authority paid too much for that electricity; and that BC Hydro did all of this at the behest of the government.