The Wuikinuxv Nation community of Wuikinuxv Village is a remote, off-grid community only accessible by boat or float plane. Located in the Great Bear Rainforest on the shores of Rivers Inlet and Owikeno Lake, Wuikinuxv settlements have been found in the area that are over 10,000 years old. Maintaining and protecting the traditional territory and its natural resources is of vital importance to the Wuikinuxv people.
Building off the success of Nicknaqueet River Hydro, BPG worked with Wuikinuxv Nation to complete a Community Energy Plan to comprehensively diagnose the energy challenges and opportunities that the community faces. The CEP quantified several community growth scenarios and identified strategies for ensuring the energy needs can be met under each scenario, including via energy efficiency, hydro expansion, and solar, wind and biomass energy alternatives.
The CEP has led to two follow-up initiatives. The first is a bioenergy pre-feasibility study to assess the potential of utilizing local biomass feedstocks as a source of fuel for space heating. This would alleviate high electricity demand in the colder months, thereby freeing up additional hydro capacity for future community growth. The second is a digital energy metering program that involves the installation of energy meters in all residential, community and commercial buildings in the village to provide high-quality energy use data. This data will underpin future energy decision-making in the community and could support the creation of a future Nation-owned electrical utility that administers consumption-based billing to incentivize energy saving and self-fund O&M activities. BPG is the project manager for both the biomass pre-feasibility study and the digital energy metering program.
This project has received support from the Province of BC.