Everything Electric Podcast: "Big 'Blue' Battery? How BC HYDRO is powering a province's energy & transport"

Host: Robert Llewellyn (Fully Charged Show)
Guest: Charlotte Meter, CEO of BC Hydro
Date: September 2, 2025

Overview

In this episode, Robert Llewellyn sits down with Charlotte Meter, the newly appointed CEO of BC Hydro, to discuss the massive changes facing British Columbia's clean energy backbone. They dive into BC Hydro's "big build" era, balancing massive infrastructure projects with environmental commitments, navigating growing demand for electricity, and developing deep partnerships with First Nations, industry, and customers.

Themes include how BC Hydro manages surging load forecasts, the engineering marvel of the province’s hydro dams, fostering trust with residents, integrating demand-side management, and the challenges—and opportunities—of electrifying a province on the front lines of climate change.

Discussion Highlights & Insights

1. Stepping into the Role & Organizational Mission

[02:50 – 04:41]

• Charlotte Meter reflects on her first weeks as CEO after 20 years at BC Hydro, mainly in operations.
• She emphasizes the privilege and responsibility of providing BC with 98% clean electricity, and the company's leadership in climate action.
• Quote:
  “I know firsthand how critical reliable, safe service is to British Columbians and just how important it is for their quality of life, their safety, their security, ... business, personal.” — Charlotte Meter [03:46]

Priorities Identified:

• Advance BC Hydro’s major infrastructure build (the "big build era").
• Foster economic development for the province.
• Grow energy supply and build a resilient grid.
• Innovate to meet evolving customer needs.

2. The “Big Build Era” – Scaling Infrastructure Across the Province

[05:39 – 08:37]

• BC Hydro is now building at twice its historic pace across generation, transmission, and distribution—a “big build” for energy supply and resilience.
• Projects include new substations, plant upgrades, and significant additions (e.g., a new turbine at Revelstoke Dam).
• They used to stagger projects; now, concurrent major builds are the norm.
• Site C, the massive new dam, is seen as a legacy project—possibly the last of its kind, with future emphasis spread throughout the grid.

Quote:
“These are 100-year projects… You really feel like you’re building it for your family’s next generation.” — Charlotte Meter [09:27]

3. Rising Demand: What’s Driving BC’s Electricity Needs?

[10:49 – 12:10]

• After a decade of flat growth, BC faces accelerating demand due primarily to industrial expansion: LNG, mining, port expansion, etc.
• Electrification (buildings, transport), population, and housing growth also increase loads.
• Forecasters model radically different scenarios over 20-year horizons, as large new industrial loads (“mega loads”) loom and policy incentives shift frequently.

Quote:
“The uncertainty of where this load could go has never been bigger.” — Charlotte Meter [12:52]

4. Balancing Short-Term Flexibility with Long-Term Planning

[12:52 – 14:58]

• Charlotte details how BC Hydro employs scenario planning to navigate unpredictable industrial and social trends.
• The company is “not being cautious on overbuilding a little bit” to avoid undersupply—a calculated, asymmetric risk.
• They maintain “Plan A, B, C, D” so they can pivot rapidly if the future arrives faster than forecasted.

Quote:
“When I say we’ll take more risks, never more safety risk.... But if you’re going to move faster on some business decisions, you have to be a bit more comfortable with a bit more business risk because you’re kind of placing bets.” — Charlotte Meter [13:08]

5. Empowering Customers & Virtual Power Plants

[15:32 – 18:55]

• “Power Smart” programs since 2008 encourage efficiency as the “cheapest supply option.”
• Aggressive investment in demand-side management: $700M over 3 years.
• Experimenting with rate structures (e.g., “Peak Saver”), empowering users to shift EV charging away from peak times.
• Exploring potential for virtual power plants (VPPs)—collective, customer-side management of demand and supply can offset new builds.

Quote:
“I love the concept of a virtual power plant because you’re actually not building more infrastructure. You’re just combining the behavioral efforts and capabilities of your customers.” — Charlotte Meter [16:02]

6. The Role of Brand & Public Trust

[18:55 – 20:59]

• Despite lack of competition, BC Hydro’s brand and social trust are vital for consumer education and social license to operate and build.
• Low rates, strong environmental values, Crown Corporation ownership—these factors reinforce their responsibility to act for the public good.

Quote:
“Brand is so important. Trust, it’s just about trust. And social license to do what we need to do.” — Charlotte Meter [20:58]

7. Site C & Infrastructure Ethics—Building with “Reverence”

[21:02 – 26:17]

• Reflections on the sheer, awe-inspiring scale of hydro dams like Site C and WAC Bennett.
• Charlotte stresses building infrastructure “with reverence”—acknowledging environmental and social impacts, and the need for transparency and partnership, especially with First Nations.
• Lessons learned: staff up early for major projects to enable communication and impact mitigation.

Quote:
“Have reverence for the individual community impacts and staff up your project early.... Transparency in decision making. ... Not everybody will agree with everything you’re doing, but they’ll understand how you made the decision.” — Charlotte Meter [22:08, 25:01]

8. Integrating New Supply & Resilience through Power Calls

[26:19 – 28:35]

• BC Hydro held 2024/2025 energy calls to increase supply—major wind and solar contracts (with significant First Nations equity), adding ~16% more energy to their portfolio over two calls.
• Focus remains on balancing intermittent energy sources with dispatchable hydro storage, and on exploring new capacity through private sector partnerships.

Quote:
“All clean. And then of course, following that, we’re going to have to look at how we firm up that energy.” — Charlotte Meter [27:07]

9. Maintaining & Modernizing an Aging Grid

[28:35 – 31:11]

• Despite the focus on new builds, 60% of capital investment goes to maintaining and upgrading the existing asset base—essential for reliability.
• Upgrades target generation assets, dam safety, and advanced control schemes that provide resilience even under contingencies.

10. Climate Adaptation: Droughts & Wildfire

[31:11 – 35:43]

• BC Hydro is in year three of a provincial drought but remains resilient thanks to vast water storage and energy trading with other jurisdictions.
• Climate adaptation includes wildfire risk mitigation (e.g., fire retardants, new materials), more robust emergency response, and heavy investment in vegetation management.

Quote:
“The fact that we’ve just gone through three years of drought and been fine really shows the resilience of our system and the way neighboring jurisdictions have to work together.” — Charlotte Meter [33:08]

11. Leveraging Interconnections & Navigating Political Uncertainty

[35:43 – 38:48]

• BC Hydro is deeply integrated into the Western Interconnection (cross-border electricity grid) with the US, balancing seasonal loads via trade.
• Political uncertainties reinforce the need for Canadian self-sufficiency but do not diminish the value of economic and operational collaboration.
• Large new transmission projects (e.g., spanning northern BC) are crucial for energy security and development.

12. Hopes for Technology & the Future

[39:41 – 41:45]

• Charlotte champions technology acceleration—especially for cost-effective, grid-scale firm clean energy (e.g., nuclear, geothermal).
• Wishes she could “control the weather” to optimize hydroelectric production—a wish echoed by every wedding planner and British Columbian.

Quote:
“I’d love to control the weather because we have this beautiful hydroelectric system that if you had the right amount of precipitation ... you just could optimize it beautifully.” — Charlotte Meter [40:57]

Notable, Memorable Quotes

• “If you get asked to participate in any sort of project of that size and magnitude, say yes, because it’s legacy building and an experience that very few people get in their careers.”
  — Charlotte Meter [09:56]

• “Trade-offs are really, really hard.... When we have hard trade-offs, we try to go back to our values as a company.”
  — Charlotte Meter [23:39]

• “Partnerships is the way the world is going to work, especially given how much we have to build ... it’s going to take partnerships.”
  — Charlotte Meter [26:13]

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Topic | |--------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:50–04:41 | Charlotte’s background and vision as CEO | | 05:39–08:37 | What the "big build era" means for BC Hydro | | 10:49–12:10 | Load growth drivers & forecasting future demand | | 12:52–14:58 | Scenario planning, risk management, and overbuilding for resilience | | 15:32–18:55 | Demand-side management & virtual power plants | | 18:55–20:59 | The importance of BC Hydro’s brand and public trust | | 21:02–26:17 | Site C dam, infrastructure with "reverence", & ethical trade-offs | | 26:19–28:35 | Power calls, integrating new renewables | | 28:35–31:11 | Grid modernization and asset maintenance | | 31:11–35:43 | Climate adaptation: droughts, wildfires, and extreme weather | | 35:43–38:48 | Western Interconnection, power trading, and economic security | | 39:41–41:45 | Technology hopes and closing thoughts |

Tone & Closing Thoughts

The episode is honest, thoughtful, and technical—with a sense of humility and humor (including weather jokes and cathedral comparisons). Charlotte Meter emphasizes the importance of legacy, community partnership, and transparency, while also being a “technology optimist” about BC’s clean energy future.

Final thought:
Reverence for the landscape, trust and partnership, and a readiness to face both challenge and opportunity—“that is the nature of the business,” as Robert aptly summarizes.