RED DEER – The organization that manages Alberta’s electrical grid is making another attempt to see a new transmission line built in the province.
Dick Way of Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) says the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board killed a proposal for such a line earlier this year and ordered the planning process to start again.
As a result, AESO is holding 26 open houses this spring to sell the public on the need for more electricity and talk about how best to deliver it to a surging population and industrial sector.
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Another round of hearings are planned next year to discuss locations for the line.
AESO hopes the line will be working by 2012 and a new as-yet-undetermined energy system operating by 2017.
Alberta’s electricity needs grow by about three percent a year and an aging system leaves it at risk, Way said in an interview during an open house in Red Deer.
“The power lines are quite old and power that leaves the north to find its way south does not get there,” he said.
“The lines lose power in the process of moving it so we have an opportunity to improve efficiencies.”
The greatest demand is along Highway 2 between Edmonton and Calgary and in the northeastern oilsands development at Fort McMurray.
Most of the province’s electricity is generated in the north and delivered to the south.
Power is also shipped back and forth to Saskatchewan and British Columbia. There is potential to move power to Montana and the U.S. Pacific Northwest, although that has not been approved.
Landowner groups have suggested burying new transmission lines so they don’t intrude on the rural environment, but Way said proven technology isn’t available for the amount of electricity that power companies want to transmit.
“We have scoured the world and there is some technology that is coming along, but in the 1,000 megawatt capacity we are not seeing any,” he said.
Instead, the utilities are looking at building a line using different-sized towers. Five potential routes are being considered.
Atco Group favours a route east of Highway 2 where high capacity towers and lines would affect fewer people.
“It is higher cost to go further east and transmission is not cheap to build,” said Bob Baer of Atco.
“We’re saying this is a good process, but we need to look broader.”
The original proposal to build the line in western Alberta was the shortest and cheapest route.
The eastern side of the province is within the service area of AltaLink and Atco, so both would participate in building transmission lines and delivering electricity.
Trans Canada is proposing a line farther east called Northern Lights that would start at Edmonton, travel south and then west before crossing into B.C., Idaho and Oregon.
