BC Hydro

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The British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority, operating as BC Hydro, is a Canadian electric utility in the province of British Columbia. It is the main electricity distributor, serving more than 4 million customers in most areas, with the exception of the City of New Westminster, where the city runs its own electrical department and portions of the West Kootenay, Okanagan, the Boundary Country and Similkameen regions, where FortisBC, a subsidiary of Fortis Inc. directly provides electric service to 213,000 customers and supplies municipally owned utilities in the same area. As a provincial Crown corporation, BC Hydro reports to the BC Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation, and is regulated by the British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC). Its mandate is to generate, purchase, distribute and sell electricity. BC Hydro operates 32 hydroelectric facilities and two natural gas-fueled thermal power plants. As of 2014, 95 per cent of the province's electricity was produced by hydroelectric generating stations, which consist mostly of large hydroelectric dams on the Columbia and Peace rivers. BC Hydro's various facilities generate between 43,000 and 54,000 gigawatt hours of electricity annually, depending on prevailing water levels. BC Hydro's nameplate capacity is 12,049 megawatts. Electricity is delivered through a network of 18,286 kilometers of transmission lines operating from 69 kV to 500 kV, and 55,254 kilometers of distribution lines. BC Hydro has two major intertie paths, with its system being interconnected to the Alberta Electric System Operator via WECC Path 1, and to the Bonneville Power Administration via WECC Path 3. For the 2013-2014 fiscal year, the domestic electric sales volume was 53,018 gigawatt hours, revenue was CA$5.392 billion and net income was CA$549 million.