FortisBC said that it will provide up to 300,000 gigajoules of LNG per year, the energy equivalent of 7.8 million litres of diesel fuel, for the next 10 years to help fuel BC Ferries’ three new intermediate class ferries.
The LNG will be supplied from FortisBC’s Tilbury facility located in Delta, which recently broke ground on a $400-million expansion and the Mt. Hayes facility, located on Vancouver Island. The Tilbury expansion will add 1.1 million gigajoules of LNG storage and approximately 34,000 gigajoules of liquefaction capacity per day. The ships will be fuelled in the traditional manner that BC Ferries takes on diesel fuel, with trucks making deliveries to the vessels during non-operational periods.
Revealed by BC Ferries in 2014, the vessels are being built with dual fuel capability (liquefied natural gas and marine diesel), and will be replacing the Queen of Burnaby (Comox-Powell River) and Queen of Nanaimo (Tsawwassen-Southern Gulf Islands). The third vessel will augment peak and shoulder season service on the Southern Gulf Islands route, plus provide refit relief around the fleet.
FortisBC also provided $6 million in incentive funding toward the three new vessels, which was made possible following the creation of the Government of B.C.’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction regulation in 2012. Following those changes, FortisBC announced the $62-million program for fleet operators to offset part of the cost for a natural gas engine over a diesel engine.
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Image: BC Ferries