Nelson Hydro
Suite 101, 310 Ward Street, Nelson, British Columbia, Canada

Nelson Hydro and Columbia Wireless are proud to present a live view into the private affairs of an osprey family. 

Nelson Hydro

Nelson Hydro is a City of Nelson owned and operated utility, and is the local supply authority for electrical service in the City of Nelson and surrounding area. The Nelson Hydro service area covers from the Nelson Hydro Power Plant on Kootenay River to the west, Blewett, Taghum, Sproule and Grohman Creek, the City of Nelson, Hwy 6 south towards Salmo to Perrier Road and beyond, north and east along Kootenay Lake to Harrop – Procter, Balfour, Queens Bay and terminating at Coffee Creek north of Queens Bay along 
Kootenay Lake.

Nelson Hydro connects to the FortisBC system at Coffee Creek, the Nelson Hydro Power Plant at Bonnington and at the Rosemont Substation in the Rosemont area in the City of Nelson. Nelson Hydro is very unique in that it is one of the few Municipally owned and operated utilities to have its own generation, transmission and distribution systems.

Supply

Includes Power Purchase and Generation – activities associated with the procurement and production of the electricity commodity.

Power Purchase

Approximately 45% of our annual energy requirements are obtained via power purchase. The supplier has historically been West Kootenay Power, now FortisBC under the current traditional regulatory environment. Power purchase represents approximately 30% of our annual operating costs.

Generation

Nelson Hydro owns and operates a 16 MW hydroelectric generation facility located at Bonnington Falls on the Kootenay River 16 km southwest of Nelson. The current water license allows a year-round output of 9.1 MW, which represents about 55% of our annual energy requirements. Operating costs for generation includes maintenance of the four generating units and of the buildings and property, water license fees and insurance. The powerplant serves an important function in that it tempers the rate impacts that FortisBC increases would otherwise have on our customers.

Transmission & Substations

Nelson Hydro owns and operates about 20 km of 63 kV transmission line that links the Powerplant and our supply points from FortisBC to our substation facilities in the City. Nelson Hydro also manages seven substation facilities – five within the City, one on the North Shore and one at the Powerplant. The facilities serve to convert transmission supply at 63 kV to distribution supply, primarily at 25 kV. Expenditures in these areas include crossarm and insulator replacement and outage response for the transmission lines and building, structure, switchgear and transformer maintenance in the substations.

Distribution

The most extensive portion of the Nelson Hydro system involves delivery of the electricity commodity to individual customers. This includes the medium (between 750 and 63,000 volts) and low (less than 750 volts) voltage facilities of Nelson Hydro, including transformation. Expenditures in this area include crossarm, insulator and conductor replacement, primary and secondary connector renewal, transformer maintenance, vegetation management and outage response.

Metering

All field activities associated with revenue collection is grouped under Metering. Expenditures include labor and vehicles for meter reading, connects, disconnects and all activities associated with Measurement Canada certification of new meters and re-certification of meters in service.

Meter Types

For Residential electricity metering in the Nelson Hydro service area there are currently two main types of meters used;

C1SR:       These meters are used mainly on single family residential applications,

CN1SR:    These meters are used mainly in apartment and strata developments 

Nelson Hydro History

Among the many noteworthy events and achievements that make the story of Nelson an interesting and colourful one, not the least remarkable is the power plant at Cottonwood Falls. On April 23, 1892 the “Nelson Miner” announced the incorporation of the Nelson Electric Light Company, by a private bill of the British Columbia Legislature.