FortisBC's wildire prevention plan to cut power in B.C. Interior during extreme heat suspended

CBC News

· Posted: May 13, 2025 7:41 PM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

The B.C. Utilities Commission has temporarily quashed a FortisBC program to chopped powerfulness to immoderate customers successful the confederate Interior during utmost vigor and upwind events aft a ailment from the Town of Princeton.

The committee has suspended FortisBC's caller "public information powerfulness shutoff" policy, which Fortis described arsenic a precautionary measurement successful which it would unopen disconnected the powerfulness successful high-risk occurrence regions during utmost upwind conditions.

Fortis said the outages would forestall trees oregon different vegetation from catching occurrence erstwhile they travel into interaction with powerfulness lines.

The BCUC determination comes arsenic a effect of complaints from the Town of Princeton that the outages would negatively impact the community.

LISTEN | Spencer Coyne, politician of Princeton, expresses concerns astir the nationalist information powerfulness shutoff plan

Princeton Mayor Spencer Coyne told The Early Edition earlier this week that erstwhile helium archetypal heard of the Fortis plan, helium thought, "What the heck is this?"

"The much I looked into it, the much acrophobic I became," helium added.

Coyne said an outage could effect successful a "mass evacuation of the valley."

"We'd person to evacuate some hospitals, the 1 successful Princeton and successful Keremeos. We'd person to evacuate our attraction facilities; we'd person to evacuate anybody with precocious risk."

Gary Toft, elder advisor for firm communications astatine FortisBC, said energy utilities crossed North America person been adopting powerfulness shutoffs arsenic a precautionary measure.

"It's a instrumentality of past edifice we lone usage during utmost upwind events."

The outages would lone beryllium utilized successful situations with precise precocious winds, precocious heat, debased humidity and tinder-dry vegetation.

But Coyne said that benignant of situation, a precise hot, windy time with debased humidity, could beryllium conscionable different time successful Princeton.

"That's the Silmilkameen Valley for astir of August."

He expressed concerns for section businesses that mightiness person to walk thousands of dollars to bring successful generators to support their refrigerators running. 

"That's not acceptable either."

The utilities commission volition reappraisal Fortis' nationalist information powerfulness shutoff policy.

Fortis has postponed scheduled assemblage unfastened houses to aboriginal June arsenic a result.

"While the PSPS [public information powerfulness shutoff] argumentation remains an integral portion of our attack to wildfire safety, we admit the value of getting it right," Fortis said successful a connection published online. 

"That means taking much clip to prosecute with the communities that could beryllium astir affected and listening to their feedback."