An AltaLink spokesperson was in town last week to update the Innisfail Chamber of Commerce board on the status of the Red Deer Area Transmission Development.
John Grove, AltaLink’s community relations and Aboriginal affairs specialist, said construction on stage one of the process – upgrading six current substations in the Red Deer area – could begin as early as next year. The six substations: Red Deer North Substation, the Gaetz Substation, the Benalto Substation, the Joffree Substation, the Union Carbide Prentiss Substation and the Ellis Substation, will be upgraded from 138 KV to 240 KV input.
“This means there’s more power to be distributed locally,” Grove said, adding that the process will almost be “non-noticeable” and will increase each substation’s overall capacity. Open houses on stage one are planned in Red Deer and Sylvan Lake during the last week of June. A tour of an area substation for local media and municipal officials is scheduled for June 9 in Red Deer.
Grove said the local transmission system hasn’t been upgraded in approximately 40 to 50 years, while the area’s population has grown by 100,000 people.
The Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO), an independent not-for-profit electrical system planner, has reported that electrical demand from the region’s industrial, residential, commercial and farming customers has grown significantly over a number of years and will continue to grow by as much as 3.5 per cent per year over the next decade. The transmission upgrades will allow AltaLink to meet the demand, improve reliability and lead to cost efficiency, Grove explained.
AESO met with stakeholders in the area in February and March to discuss the need for the upgrades. AESO’s needs application, which outlines why the project is required, will be submitted to the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) this spring.
Grove debunked two misconceptions during his presentation – that the electrical system upgrades are designed to allow the province to export more electricity, and that local power generation makes economic sense.
“For 10 years we’ve been a net importer by twice as much,” he explained, noting the province neither has the transmission facilities or extra power generation to make exporting a reality.
Public consultations on stage two of the process, which will involve the replacement of 75 km of transmission line in the Red Deer and Sylvan Lake area, will begin in the fall and is scheduled to wrap up in the winter of 2012. Construction could begin as soon as the spring of 2013, with completion in the winter of 2014.
Stage three includes the construction of new substations near Didsbury, Innisfail and Ponoka, and the construction of approximately 50 km of new transmission lines near the substations as well as just east of Lacombe. Public consultation on stage three will take place from the summer or fall of 2011 to the winter of 2011, with construction scheduled from the winter of 2013 to the spring of 2014 if the application is approved.
AltaLink is also planning to remove 100 km of existing transmission lines from Wetaskiwin to Lacombe, and from Red Deer to Innisfail in stage four of the project. Consultation on stage four is scheduled from the summer of 2012 until the spring of 2013, with construction scheduled from the spring of 2014 to the summer of 2014. Most of the line cuts across country, and were built in the late 1940s, Grove said.
“In those days the planning guys looked at a map, took a ruler and drew the line,” he said. “It isn’t very farmer-friendly because it doesn’t follow quarter section lines.”
Grove said AltaLink would contact anyone living within 150 metres of any proposed work, or within 1000 metres of any major project, by phone or mail.
-30-
61 per cent industrial users
19 per cent commercial users
16 per cent residential
4 per cent farms
Objective is to improve reliability and cost efficiency.
Import twice as much electricity as they export.
Another myth - local generation makes good sense. Pointed to Medicine Hat, a community that owns its own natural gas, electrical generation, and transmission and distribution system.
“They were the darling of the province for cheap power, until the price of gas went up,” he said, explaining the community is paying three times more for electricity than if it came from the grid.
STAGE TWO
“What we’re doing is adding more wires, or larger wires, to existing poles on existing right-of-ways to provide an increased volume of electricity,” Grove explained. “Those are largely in the Red Deer and Sylvan Lake areas.”
“From a consumer point-of-view, you’d like nothing more than to be on the other side of that and be exporting to somebody during the peak times and import theirs during low times. We don’t have the transmission facilities to do that. We also don’t exceptional extra generation to be able to do that.”
