FortisBC Applies to the BCUC for the Okanagan Capacity Mitigation Project
August 7, 2024
FortisBC Energy Inc. (FortisBC) filed an application today with its regulator, the British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC), for the Okanagan Capacity Mitigation Project (OCMP). This project is FortisBC’s proposed short-term solution to an expected shortfall of gas in the Okanagan by the winter of 2026/27, driven by increasing energy demand in the region from continued population growth, and is in response to the BCUC decision in December 2023 regarding the approximately 30-kilometre Okanagan Capacity Upgrade Project.
The OCMP will help meet customers’ peak energy demands in the Okanagan starting in the winter of 2026/27 by developing a small-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage and send-out facility in Kelowna. The facility will be utilized on the coldest days of the year to ensure sufficient energy can be provided to customers who rely on gas to heat their homes and businesses.
Located next to an existing natural gas station on industrial zoned land owned by FortisBC off Spall Road, north of Harvey Avenue (Highway 97), the proposed small-scale facility will contain six horizontal storage tanks with a total capacity of approximately 1,140 cubic metres of LNG upon completion—approximately 1.5 per cent of the volume capacity of both tanks combined at our Tilbury facility in Delta, B.C.
All LNG stored at the Kelowna facility will be produced at FortisBC’s Tilbury LNG facility in Delta, B.C. and loaded into tankers at the loading facility. No LNG production will take place at the Kelowna facility and the tanks are expected to be empty for much of the year.
In the first winter of operation in 2026/27, one mobile tank and three portable LNG tankers will be filled and staged on site in anticipation of extreme cold weather events. If the project is approved, FortisBC plans to begin construction in 2026.
FortisBC is committed to ongoing communication with all affected residents, municipalities, stakeholders, and Indigenous communities about the OCMP, and addressing any feedback or questions that may arise.
