FortisBC Inc. (FortisBC) Application for a Certificate of Public ...

I have also canvassed relevant academic and other literature related to the theft of
electricity in British Columbia, and literature related to the industry of marijuana
production, both past and present. Finally I have considered the impact and relevance of
The Safety Standards Amendment Act, B.C., 2006, notably in relation to sections 19.2
and 19.3, requiring the disclosure of account information (consumption data) to local
governments, when requested by those governments. Finally, I attach a copy of my
curriculum vitae.
I begin with the estimated 2012 AMI Theft Benefit Calculation, Table 5.3.2a:
Table 5.3.2a: Estimated 2012 AMI Theft Benefit Calculation
Appendix BCUC IR1 86.1
A Total marihuana sites in BC Plecas Report 13660
B
FortisBC proportionate share of residential
customers
Operating statistics 6%
C Marijuana sites in FBC A x B 820
D Average number of 1000W lights per site FortisBC 30
E Days in grow cycle Plecas Report 90
F Daily kWh per light Plecas Report 14
G Number of grow cycles per year Plecas Report 4
H Annual energy per light (kWh) E x F x G 5040
I Annual energy per site (kWh) D x H 151,200
J Annual marihuana energy use (MWh) (C x I )/1000 123,920
The number of marijuana cultivation sites in British Columbia has been addressed most
recently by Diplock and Plecas (2011). 1 These authors draw on research conducted by
Easton (2004) and Bouchard (2007) to estimate the total number of indoor marijuana
growing operations in the province; these two researchers have used different methods to
calculate the number of active grows, with calculations current to 2012 yielding figures in
the range of 13,000. I can, therefore, support the Fortis BC working assumption that there
are 13,660 sites in B.C. and the corollary expressed in the Table 5.3.2 above – that there
are, given the Fortis BC share of sites in the province, approximately 820 indoor growing
operations within the area served.
1 Jordan Diplock and Darryl Plecas, The Increasing Problem of Electrical
Consumption in Indoor Marijuana Grow Operations in British Columbia, University
of the Fraser Valley, Centre for Public Safety and Criminal Justice Research, April,
2011, pp.1-7. See also Steve Easton, Marijuana Growth in British Columbia,
Vancouver, B.C., Fraser Institute, 2004, and Martin Bouchard, “A capture-recapture
model to estimate the size of criminal populations and the risks of detection in a
marijuana cultivation industry”, Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 23, 221-241,
2007.
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