B.C. Hydro asks permission to give emergency billing relief to those affected by evacuations
Credit to Author: Stephanie Ip| Date: Tue, 21 Jan 2020 20:26:40 +0000
The B.C. Utilities Commission wants to know what the public thinks about B.C. Hydro’s application to waive charges for customers affected by evacuation orders during wildfires and other emergencies.
The hydro company has applied to the Commission to allow it to waive any charges for customers forced from their homes due to an evacuation order. The application, which is jointly with Fortis B.C., was posted publicly on Monday.
In the past, the Commission approved one-off B.C. Hydro applications to provide relief in the form of bill credits to residents during the 2017 and 2018 wildfire season.
The current application seeks the ability to grant emergency billing relief on the spot to any customer affected by an evacuation order — whether caused by wildfire, landslide or otherwise — during a declared state of emergency.
The billing relief would be provided only to residential customers, small businesses and farms, as they are more vulnerable to the financial impacts of evacuation orders, according to the application. Those whose homes are destroyed in a disaster would also see their charges waived up to the last effective billing period.
The emergency relief would apply to customers subject to evacuation orders extending a minimum of five consecutive days.
Those with opinions can submit a letter of comment, register as an interested party, or request intervener status. The deadline to register as an intervener is Jan. 29, while the deadline to file information request with B.C. Hydro or Fortis B.C. is Feb. 5.
More information can be found at www.bcuc.com. Documents about the application are available online.