Power
Alberta power companies invest years of planning into line siting
- Details
- Category: Power
- Written by Jim Bentein
Hundreds of hours of work and years of planning are invested before companies like ATCO Electric and AltaLink apply to the Alberta Utilities Commission to build new lines.
“The applications have gotten a lot thicker,” says Sett Policicchio, president of ATCO Electric’s capital projects division. “We have 90 to 100 employees working full-time on the application process.”
And those employees have a lot on their plate these days.
ATCO is now working on the Hanna Region Transmission Development, an $800-million investment that will reinforce the east-central transmission system. The 240-kilovolt alternating current line runs about 400 kilometres and is designed mostly to move wind power. It is expected to come into service in 2012-2013.
In addition, the company has applied to build the eastern Alberta 500-kilovolt transmission line, which will carry power from the Fort Saskatchewan area to the Brooks area. That project will cost about $1.6 billion.
Several refurbishing projects are planned for the Fort McMurray area, Policicchio says. After the current build-out, the company will have 11,000 kilometres of transmission lines in the province.
According to Policicchio, ATCO consults for at least two years with landowners in areas affected by major new transmission. Preferred routes are chosen very carefully.
“We’re sensitive to sites such as cemeteries, community halls and other areas that might be impacted,” he says. “We may initially have 10 or 12 different routes, but after consultation with landowners and community leaders, we narrow that down to two or three.”
Rights-of-way for the largest new lines will measure about 30 by 75 metres. Property owners are compensated initially for the land occupied by transmission infrastructure, as well as annually, depending on how much their access to the land has been affected.
Landowners can receive thousands of dollars in the beginning for towers that are located on their property and about $2,000 a year for each tower.
Mark Johns, director of siting for AltaLink, says “armies of people,” including employees and consultants, are involved in the siting process.
His company is a partner in the proposed 500-kilovolt Heartland project, the 500-kilovolt western Alberta transmission project (running from the Genesee area near Edmonton to the Langdon area east of Calgary), the huge Southern Alberta Transmission Reinforcement project and many smaller projects.
AltaLink has more than 12,000 kilometres of transmission lines and 270 substations now in Alberta, with a territory covering 212,000 square kilometres. It owns and operates most of the high-voltage transmission in central and southern Alberta, which provides about 85 per cent of the province’s power. Last year alone, the company invested $500 million in transmission.
Johns says the company tries to deal with all of the concerns of those opposed to or concerned about transmission.
For instance, AltaLink meets with Ducks Unlimited and other conservation groups, as well as Alberta Environment, on an ongoing basis to respond to concerns about birds killed by lines.
“That has led to us installing what we call flaggers on the transmission lines,” he says. “They’re like little cards that hang from the wires. Birds can see them and it greatly reduces impacts.”
The impact of transmission lines on property values varies, according to Johns.
Because farmers are well compensated, there is usually less concern from them.
“Country residential areas seem to be impacted the most,” he says.
Johns says transmission line opponents who want to see the Heartland line (and perhaps others) buried should know there is a precedent.
In 2009, the City of Lethbridge proposed that a line AltaLink was building there should partially run underground. In response, the Alberta Utilities Commission told the city it would have to pay for that section of the line. The city declined.
“It’s hard to justify the extra cost,” Johns says, adding that there’s no “conclusive evidence” that power lines cause health problems, citing research from the World Health Organization and others.
