While 80 per cent capacity sounds good, it’s still a shortfall when it comes to the province’s natural gas supply.
That’s according to Fortis BC’s Manager of Corporate Communications Sean Beardow, who said British Columbians use all the gas they receive during the winter months.
“We’re doing what we can on our end to reinforce supply, but we do need British Columbians to help,” said Beardow. “They can look at their thermostats, shift it down a couple of degrees and help the gas supply by conserving.”
Beardow said the line is only running at about 50 per cent capacity, although Enbridge expects the capacity to increase to 80 per cent, although, it’s not known when.
“In a typical winter, British Columbians use 100 per cent of the gas that we receive from the Enbridge pipeline, so what we are left with, even in the best case scenario is a 20 per cent shortfall of the natural gas we typically have this time of year,” said Beardow.
On November 2, Enbridge announced that one of the ruptured pipelines had been repaired following the explosion and it would be running at 80 per cent capacity soon.
