SaskPower Investing $110 million in Lloydminster, North Battleford Areas

October 21, 2016

To keep up with a growing demand for power, meet environmental commitments, and renew and grow an aging power grid, SaskPower is upgrading portions of the power grid in the west central area of the province.

Affected areas include North Battleford, Lloydminster, Onion Lake, Paradise Hill, St. Walburg, Turtle Lake, Glaslyn, Biggar, Kerrobert, Unity, and Macklin and surrounding areas.

“SaskPower is facing an ongoing power challenge,” says 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 poles, transformers and stations. We’re investing approximately $1 billion dollars annually throughout Saskatchewan to make sure homes, farms and businesses have the power they need, when they need it.”

This region’s power demands have been increasing quickly over the past 10 years. So far in 2016, residential and commercial customers in the area have made 300 new connection or reconstruction requests. This was additional work on top of SaskPower’s $110 million regional investment.

SaskPower’s regional work includes building new stations, worth approximately $100 million, that deliver power to customers around Rutland, Edam, Superb and Golden Lake. Some post-construction work continues to connect these assets to the system, which is expected to be complete in early 2017.

Part of this investment also includes over $10 million in system maintenance for the North Battleford and Lloydminster areas. This includes upgrading or replacing stations that deliver power to customers, inspecting and repairing wood poles and upgrading or replacing electrical devices that protect the system’s power lines.

Photo courtesy of SaskPower.