Natural gas price, market and curtailment information

Learn about heat content values and how they affect the cost of natural gas. You can get daily heat content value data here, and updated curtailment information for industrial customers on an interruptible natural gas transportation rate.

Curtailment

Curtailment is the interruption of service due to operational or weather-related system constraints, and it’s implemented at FortisBC's discretion. Only industrial customers on an interruptible natural gas transportation rate (rates 7, 27, 22, 22A or 22B) are affected.

With a minimum of two hours’ notice, customers on interruptible transportation rates can be required to stop using natural gas and switch to an alternate energy source.

Please refer to this page periodically to help assess the likelihood of curtailment and to view curtailment status updates.

Curtailment status

There are no current curtailment restrictions.

Heat content values

Your bill is based on the amount of energy you use, measured in gigajoules (GJ). Depending on your meter type, the usage is measured by volume in cubic feet or cubic metres. This gas volume measurement needs to be multiplied by a conversion factor to give us the energy used in GJ.

The energy or heat content of natural gas varies because natural gas has minor variations in the amount and types of energy gases (methane, ethane, propane, butane) it contains. The more combustible gases in the natural gas, the higher the GJ value.

Higher Heating Value

FortisBC uses the Higher Heating Value (HHV) of the natural gas in the conversion formula. The HHV can be defined as the total heat obtained from combustion of a specified amount of fuel and its stoichiometrically correct amount of air, both being at 60 °F when combustion starts, and the combustion products being cooled to 60 °F before heat release is measured. Natural gas is sold on the HHV basis.

Lower Heating Value

By contrast, the Lower Heating Value (LHV) is the HHV minus the latent heat of vaporization of the water vapour formed by the combustion of the hydrogen in the fuel. A rule of thumb for natural gas is HHV = LHV x 1.11.

Daily HHV data

The heating value of the gas being supplied to FortisBC on your behalf varies daily and is constantly measured. Download the daily HHV for all areas of the province:

Heat content value (XLS)
File updated to November 30, 2024

Not sure what your zone ID is? Consult our Town to energy zone cross reference chart to find out.

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