SaskPower is making significant investments in the province’s electrical system to keep up with a growing demand for power, meet environmental commitments and renew and grow an aging power grid. The work includes upgrading portions of the power grid in the south area of the province, including Weyburn, Midale, Bromhead, Torquay, Radville and surrounding areas.
“SaskPower is facing an ongoing power challenge,” said Tim Eckel, vice-president of Transmission Services.
“As the demand for power continues to grow, we not only need to build the grid, but we need to maintain our existing assets, including our power lines, stations and power plants. We’re investing approximately $1 billion annually throughout Saskatchewan to make sure homes, farms and businesses have the power they need, when they need it.”
Eckel noted this region’s power demands have been increasing quickly over the past few years. So far in 2016, residential and commercial customers in the area have made 370 new connection or reconstruction requests. This is on top of SaskPower’s $20 million regional investment. With everything completed, SaskPower is ready to support future demands.
SaskPower’s work in the area included building a new station and high voltage (138 kV) transmission line, worth approximately $20 million, to improve power delivery to customers around Halbrite, Radville, Torquay and Bromhead.
An additional $3 million in system maintenance work for the Weyburn and Bromhead areas was completed as well. This includes upgrading or replacing station equipment and transformers that deliver power to customers, upgrading or replacing electrical devices that protect the system’s power lines and upgrading rural power lines.
In order to safely complete ongoing system improvements, planned outages may be required. Customers will be notified in advance. Planned power outages are listed on saskpower.com and on Twitter @SaskPower.
Aging infrastructure causes approximately 34 per cent of unplanned outages in Saskatchewan. This year, 42 per cent of a customer’s SaskPower bill will go toward electrical infrastructure.
