B.C. Hydro is building a new $30-million Greater Victoria operations centre which has been designed to remain in service after a disaster.
“What it means to customers is we will have a post-disaster structure,” Ted Olynyk, Hydro spokesman, said Wednesday.
As more is learned about the seismic risk of southern Vancouver Island, Hydro realized it needed to build to higher standards, he said.
“I think our customers would expect nothing less of us to ensure that, if there was a major disaster that hit Vancouver Island, B.C. Hydro facilities would be there and be ready to help with the work required after.”
The Victoria area’s demand for electricity is predicted to grow two per cent annually for the next decade.
Hydro serves close to 400,000 customers on southern Vancouver Island, Olynyk said.
An operations centre provides a wide range of services, including arranging repairs to lines, maintaining sub-stations, managing the local system, and determining where new utility poles are placed.
The new centre is expected to have a 75-year lifespan, will meet growing needs, and be energy efficient, he said.
It will replace a 37-year-old building built to light industrial standards, which does not meet today’s requirements, he said.
That existing Hydro building at 4400 West Saanich Rd. will be taken down and the 148 employees will work in an adjacent leased space, Olynyk said.
New construction, including the main operations centre and the fleet services area, will be close to 84,000 square feet.
Omicron is the project construction manager. A request for trades contractors for the project closes July 31.
Plans call for construction to run from September of this year to June 2017, with employees moving in August 2017.
Hydro is working with Saanich to reconfigure traffic and pedestrian routes to minimize neighbourhood impact, he said.
A new operations centre, to be finished by year’s end, is under construction in Nanaimo, Olynyk said. Campbell River and Port Alberni have also seen new centres go up.
B.C. Hydro is investing $95 million to provide new and more reliable technology at the Horsey substation at Topaz Avenue and Quesnel street, and at the George Tripp substation on Lochside Drive near Cedar Hill Cross Road.
