FortisBC is asking all of its customers to conserve natural gas as much as possible.
A pipeline explosion in October near Prince George interrupted supply, and, even now, the pipeline is still only operating at about 85 per cent capacity.
“So even though those repairs have been made, it’s not operating at capacity,” said FortisBC communications advisor Nicole Brown. “And we need 100 per cent to provide for all our customers. So we are going to be short on natural gas this year.”
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A daily natural gas forecast is posted on the company’s website, with warnings that if supplies reach critical or extreme levels, it’s possible customers will begin losing service.
“If the whole system fails, everybody is out of natural gas. Our first step will be to reach out to customers that opted for a lower rate, which means they can be interrupted; starting largest to smallest, asking them to curtail. If that wasn’t enough, we’d have to extend that out.”
And since supply is low, prices are going up. FortisBC has had to purchase natural gas from other suppliers at a higher cost than was stipulated in the Enbridge contract.
“This has increased our costs, costs we don’t mark up,” Brown said. “Customers pay what we pay, so the cost to bring natural gas to our customers has now increased.”
Province-wide, residential customers will see an approximate overall increase of nine per cent. In Fort Nelson, that average increase will be seven per cent.
Rate hikes take effect on New Year’s Day.