BC Hydro is not expecting this winter to be as challenging as last year’s.

It is also forecasting normal operating conditions at most of its reservoirs across the fall and winter. That’s despite reduced reservoir inflows in the spring and early summer of 2019 because of a below average snowpack, as well as warm, dry weather in parts of the province.

Hydro depends on its two largest reservoirs – Williston in the Peace region and Kinbasket in the Columbia – to ensure a reliable supply of electricity to meet the province’s needs during the winter months.

“The Kinbasket Reservoir is expected to operate at near average seasonal levels during the fall and winter, and Williston Reservoir is expected to be at levels similar to, or greater, than those observed across last winter and early spring,” said Hydro spokesperson Tanya Fish.

Fish says some of Hydro’s reservoirs did not refill to normal levels but things improved with average rain and water inflows over the summer and early fall as most reservoirs returned to typical operating levels.

“The size of a reservoir determines how it responds to weather changes,” she added. “For example, fall and winter storms can quickly refill BC Hydro’s smaller reservoirs on Vancouver Island and in the Lower Mainland. For these systems, BC Hydro carefully monitors winter storms to ensure it provides advance notice of any increased risk of flooding for downstream areas.”

In April 2019, BC Hydro released a report that looked at the impact on its system caused by the unusually dry summer of 2018 and the Enbridge pipeline explosion last fall, and how it was managing in the aftermath of those two challenges.