BC Hydro vs FortisBC vs Nelson Hydro — Which Utility You're In and What It Means for Heat Pump Rebates

Three utility providers serve British Columbia, and they all do rebates differently. Nelson Hydro customers get caught the worst: it's a municipal utility, but the HRR rebate gets processed through FortisBC's portal and paid out as a paper cheque. Understand which utility you're in and the rebate path follows.

This is the routing question we hear most often from Kootenay homeowners. Below is the canonical lookup.

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Quick lookup — which utility serves your address

Where you live	Electric utility	Gas utility (if applicable)
Nelson (city limits)	Nelson Hydro	FortisBC
Castlegar, Trail, Rossland	FortisBC	FortisBC
Kelowna, Penticton, Vernon	FortisBC	FortisBC
Most of BC (Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, Interior outside FortisBC zone)	BC Hydro	FortisBC
North of 100 Mile House	BC Hydro (with northern programs available)	FortisBC where service exists
Rural RDCK outside Nelson city	Usually FortisBC, occasionally BC Hydro	FortisBC

If you live within Nelson city limits and pay your electric bill to the City of Nelson, you're a Nelson Hydro customer. If you live in Blewett, Bonnington, Slocan Valley, or anywhere in the rural RDCK, you're almost certainly on FortisBC.

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Nelson Hydro — the municipal exception

Nelson Hydro is a municipal utility owned by the City of Nelson. It buys roughly half its electricity from FortisBC and generates the rest from the city-owned Bonnington plant on the Kootenay River. About 10,500 accounts in Nelson and a small surrounding service area.

For rebate purposes, the routing is unusual:

• HRR (Home Renovation Rebate) rebates for Nelson Hydro customers are submitted through the FortisBC HRR portal at rebates.fortisbc.com. The application looks identical to a FortisBC customer's, but the payout differs: rebates are paid as a paper cheque to the homeowner, not as a bill credit. Nelson Hydro accounts can't accept FortisBC bill credits because they're separate billing systems.
• ESP (Energy Savings Program) rebates work the same as everywhere else in BC. Your contractor processes the rebate and deducts it from your invoice at point-of-sale. Utility identity doesn't change the ESP flow.
• BC Hydro programs do not apply to Nelson Hydro customers. If you see a BC Hydro rebate advertised, check eligibility before assuming you qualify.
• HomeSave Central Kootenays (up to $5,000, RDCK-administered) is available to Nelson Hydro customers and stacks on top of either ESP or HRR. See our HomeSave stacking guide for the order of operations.

More on Nelson Hydro at nelson.ca/electric-utility.

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FortisBC — Kootenays, Boundary, Okanagan

FortisBC is an investor-owned utility. It runs two distinct services:

1. FortisBC Electric — serves the West Kootenay, Boundary, Similkameen, and parts of the North Okanagan. Castlegar, Trail, Rossland, Grand Forks, Penticton, and Kelowna are all FortisBC electric.
2. FortisBC Gas — serves natural gas across most of the province, including Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna, and Nelson.

For rebates:

• HRR rebates are submitted at rebates.fortisbc.com. If you're a FortisBC electric customer, your rebate is typically applied as a bill credit. Cheque payment is available on request.
• ESP runs the same as everywhere else — contractor handles the deduction at install time.
• FortisBC-only rebates include the heat pump loan ($6,500 at 1.9% interest) and the $50 annual heat pump service rebate. Both require an active FortisBC electric account. Nelson Hydro customers don't qualify for these — even though their HRR application goes through FortisBC's portal.

Worth knowing: in FortisBC territory, gas-to-heat-pump payback is much weaker than in BC Hydro regions because FortisBC electric rates are higher than BC Hydro's. We cover this honestly in our Kootenay rebate guide.

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BC Hydro — most of BC, but not the Kootenays

BC Hydro is the Crown corporation that serves about 95% of BC's electric customers — Vancouver, Victoria, the Lower Mainland, the North, most of the Interior outside the FortisBC zone.

For rebates:

• HRR for BC Hydro customers runs through the BC Hydro portal at bchydro.com (separate from the FortisBC portal). Same program, different intake.
• ESP flows identically — contractor-processed.
• Northern programs (including the ~$3,000 northern heat pump top-up) are available only to BC Hydro customers north of a defined latitude threshold. If you're in the Kootenays, you're south of that line — these programs don't apply, regardless of utility.

If you're a BC Hydro customer reading this and confused about why FortisBC keeps coming up: your electric utility is BC Hydro, but your gas service (if you have it) is almost certainly FortisBC. That's normal. See "cross-utility quirks" below.

More at bchydro.com.

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Cross-utility quirks — having two providers is normal

Most BC homeowners technically have two utilities at once: electric from one provider, gas from another. That's the standard setup outside the FortisBC electric zone:

• Lower Mainland home with gas furnace: BC Hydro electric + FortisBC gas. Heat pump rebates flow through BC Hydro.
• Castlegar home with gas furnace: FortisBC electric + FortisBC gas. Heat pump rebates flow through FortisBC. One company, two services, two account numbers.
• Nelson home with gas furnace: Nelson Hydro electric + FortisBC gas. Heat pump rebates flow through FortisBC's HRR portal (with cheque payout) because that's how Nelson Hydro is routed.

The general rule: rebates flow through whichever utility serves the relevant fuel. A gas-to-heat-pump conversion is a fuel switch out of natural gas, so FortisBC is the relevant gas utility — but the HRR program is administered jointly across electric utilities.

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Real Kootenay examples

Three actual scenarios we've worked through:

Nelson family of 4, electric baseboard, Nelson Hydro account. They're switching to a ducted heat pump and qualify for HRR ($4,000 whole-home). The application goes through the FortisBC HRR portal because Nelson Hydro routes there. Rebate arrives as a cheque six to ten weeks after submission. They also stack HomeSave (up to $5,000) on top.

Castlegar homeowner, FortisBC electric + FortisBC gas, gas furnace conversion. They're in ESP territory (HRR fuel-switch ended April 2025). The contractor processes the ESP rebate and deducts it from the invoice. Standard FortisBC flow, no quirks.

Rural RDCK homeowner on BC Hydro (uncommon but it happens at the territorial edges). Their HRR application goes through the BC Hydro portal, not FortisBC's. If they're switching from baseboards, they get the standard $4,000 HRR. They are not eligible for FortisBC's $50 service rebate or the FortisBC heat pump loan because those require a FortisBC electric account.

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How to figure out which utility you're on

Three quick checks:

1. Look at your bill. The utility name is on the masthead. Nelson Hydro bills come from "City of Nelson — Utilities" and look like a municipal invoice. FortisBC bills are branded FortisBC. BC Hydro bills are branded BC Hydro.
2. Check your account number format. Nelson Hydro accounts are short, municipal-style numbers. FortisBC and BC Hydro use longer account numbers with their own formats.
3. Use our calculator. Our rebate calculator takes your address and figures out which utility you're on and which rebate path applies. If the address-to-utility lookup is what's blocking you, the calculator handles it.

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Common confusion sources

The places we see homeowners get tripped up:

• Homes near the Nelson city boundary. A house on Granite Road might be Nelson Hydro; a neighbour 200 metres up the road in the rural RDCK might be FortisBC. The boundary follows the city limits, not "Nelson-ish."
• New builds at the edge of service territories. A new house might have been hooked up to whichever utility was closest, not necessarily what neighbours have.
• Homeowners who moved between regions. If you previously lived in Vancouver (BC Hydro) and now live in Castlegar (FortisBC), the rebate portal is different, the payout method is different, and the local programs are different.
• Strata / multi-unit buildings. Some buildings have a single bulk meter; some have individual unit meters. The utility relationship may differ from what you'd expect for a detached house.

When in doubt, the bill answers it.

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FAQ

Can I switch utility providers? No — utilities are geographically assigned in BC. Your address determines your provider. There's no opt-in or opt-out for residential service.

What if I have multiple meters (e.g., suite + main house)? Each meter is its own account, but they're typically with the same utility. For rebate purposes, the meter serving the heated space being upgraded is the one that matters.

Does utility matter for HomeSave eligibility? No — HomeSave Central Kootenays is administered by the City of Nelson and serves all RDCK residents regardless of utility. Nelson Hydro, FortisBC, and the rare BC Hydro customer all qualify if they're in the RDCK.

Does utility affect ESP eligibility? No — ESP is a provincial program. Eligibility depends on income, fuel switch, and home type, not on which utility you're with. The rebate is processed by the contractor at install regardless.

What if my utility status changed mid-project? Rare — usually means you moved during the project, which complicates a few things. The rebate is tied to the property and the eligibility code (for ESP) or the application (for HRR), so the address on the application has to match the install address. If you moved mid-project, contact the program administrator directly before submitting.

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Don't want to figure this out alone

We handle utility routing as a basic part of every rebate project we run. Punch your address into our rebate calculator and it'll tell you which utility you're on, which rebate program fits your home, and what the stack looks like. If you'd rather skip the portal entirely, we can take it from there — see how it works on our heat pump page.

For more on the rebate side specifically, the Kootenay 2026 rebate guide and the FortisBC rebate breakdown cover the program details. The HomeSave stacking article covers the local $5,000 layer that almost every Nelson and RDCK homeowner qualifies for and most miss.