On December 14, 2023, a panel appointed by BC Hydro to review the February, 2023 explosion at one of BC Hydro’s underground vaults issued its report.
The report is the result of a BCUC direction in July, 2023 that BC Hydro conduct an “independent third-party” investigation into the root cause of the explosion, which caused “injuries to members of the public, significant property damage, and economic harm to nearby businesses.”
BC Hydro’s own investigation, conducted in June, 2023, had acknowledged that a 2016 internal report had identified 14 underground vaults, including the one where the explosion occurred, as being “high risk” and with the possibility of “public or worker severe injury or death.”
The BCUC then specifically directed that the independent third-party investigation include BC Hydro’s culture of safety and compliance, asset management practices, and work procedures and quality control processes. The Utilities Commission Act gives the BCUC jurisdiction over “all aspects of public utility safety,” which the BCUC confirmed in a recent inquiry into public utility safety.
The panel’s report concludes that BC Hydro’s initial investigation into the explosion was “narrow and focused almost exclusively on the direct (technical) causes of the explosion, namely equipment failure,” and “failed to produce corrective actions around the systemic root causes related to asset management and maintenance practices, safety and compliance culture, or human and organizational factors.” This conclusion appears to vindicate the BCUC’s decision to order a further investigation.
The panel concludes that BC Hydro’s efforts to promote a culture of safety “proved insufficient to prevent this explosion,” and that more work needs to be done to “strengthen the culture of safety that BC Hydro strives to achieve.” The panel made 15 specific recommendations, on topics such as incident investigations, maintenance planning, asset management and leadership accountability.
In BC Hydro’s response to the panel’s report, published on December 15, 2023, it states it “will be developing a plan to implement” the 15 recommendations made by the panel, an activity that will be overseen by the President and CEO of BC Hydro and its Board Chair.
But until we see its plan, we do not know how BC Hydro is going to address the “important and fundamental issues” such as “organizational and human factors” that the panel concludes led to the explosion. Among other factors, the panel assessed that BC Hydro did not “abide” by the maintenance standards set by its own engineers.
We can only hope that the BCUC continues to play an active role in overseeing BC Hydro’s response to the explosion, and that the BCUC’s role in safety regulation does not fall victim to the current efficiency drive.