for the first time in 15 years BC Hydro is putting out a call for new power today we're launching a competitive call for new sources of clean electricity demand for power in this province is expected to climb 15% by 2030 The Province says in just a few years it must add 3,000 gwatt hours enough electricity to service around 270,000 homes we've got people who are making the switch to electric vehicles and heat pumps we've got industry that wants to power up and so for some time planning has been in place around a call for power knowing that we have to integrate more Renewables into our system to make it more flexible and and resilient to a changing climate the Call Comes as a changing climate is impacting the water BC depends on to generate electricity in 2022 BC Hydro reduced power generation at some reservoirs because of drought conditions last year it spent $450 million importing power from California this year BC will likely have to import energy again we are facing a a a lower snow pack as you've seen and and that will trigger Imports um in the coming year the exact amount is actually quite variable we get a lot of um surprising amount of inflow um in the form of the spring rains and the summer rains in the north so we'll we'll see how that turns out hter Summers have also boosted BC's demands for power we're seeing summer Peaks now that we didn't have in this province where we have Heating much as we cools um and I think it's really looking at how do we most efficiently utilize the energy we have for this call The Province will prioritize solar and wind energy to be accepted projects must be located in BC and connect to BC hydro's existing systems and First Nations must have at least 25% Equity a first for this province and a move nation sayate is a critical one for economic reconciliation Michelle gasu CBC News Vancouver