BC gas utility seeks small-scale LNG storage facility approval
FortisBC, the natural gas utility serving the Canadian province of BC, said July 30 it had filed an application with the British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC) for the Okanagan Capacity Mitigation Project (OCMP), a short-term solution to an expected natural gas shortage in the region by the winter of 2026/2027.
The OCMP is a small-scale LNG storage and send-out facility that will help FortisBC meet peak customer demand on the coldest winter days. It will be located next to an existing natural gas gate station near Kelowna on land owned by FortisBC and will consist of six horizontal LNG storage tanks with a total capacity of about 1,140 m3 of LNG.
When needed, LNG in the storage tanks will be vaporised and injected into FortisBC’s existing natural gas distribution system.
No LNG will be produced at the facility. Instead, LNG produced at FortisBC’s existing Tilbury LNG facility in the Lower Mainland will be loaded onto tankers at Tilbury and trucked to the Kelowna storage facility. During most of the year, the tanks will remain empty.
In the first winter of operation in 2026/2027, one mobile tank and three portable LNG tankers will be filled and staged on site at Kelowna, in anticipation of increased demand. Pending approval from the BCUC, construction of the permanent facility will begin in 2026.
“The Okanagan Capacity Mitigation Project will help ensure we can provide energy to existing and new customers in the region over the short-term while we continue forecasting and planning towards a longer-term solution in the years ahead,” said Doug Slater, FortisBC’s vice president, indigenous relations and regulatory affairs.
Cost of the project has been estimated at about C$50.4mn.
The OCMP is a response to the BCUC’s decision in December 2023 rejecting capacity upgrade plans by FortisBC that would see the installation of 30 km of new pipeline in the Okanagan to help meet the peak demands of the utility’s 110,000 customers in the region.
In its decision, the BCUC ruled that the utility did not consider the possibility that demand for natural gas in the Okanagan region could flatten or decline over the next 20 years, in part due to BC’s climate change mitigation efforts.
It denied the utility’s application for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity, ruling the capacity upgrade project was neither necessary for public convenience nor in the public interest. It ordered instead that the utility examine other short-term solutions and file a mitigation plan by July 31, 2024.