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Greater Victoria power substations get upgrade

Aging electrical equipment is being replaced with $95 million in new and more reliable technology at two Greater Victoria B.C. Hydro substations in order to meet growing demand.
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Energy Minister Bill Bennett, right, and station manager Paul Tutt discuss improvements at Hydro's 25,000-volt Horsey substation.

Aging electrical equipment is being replaced with $95 million in new and more reliable technology at two Greater Victoria B.C. Hydro substations in order to meet growing demand.

“Victoria’s electricity demand is expected to increase two per cent per year over the next 10 years,” B.C. Minister of Mines and Energy Bill Bennett said Wednesday. “We are not only going to need more electricity, we are going to make sure it is even more reliable than it is today.”

Bennett toured the Horsey substation at Topaz Avenue and Quesnel Street, where between $60 million and $65 million is being spent on upgrades. Work started at Horsey, which is one of B.C.’s largest substations, in November 2013 and is slated to be completed in December 2016.

The Horsey station supplies power to 74,000 customers, including the B.C. legislature and downtown Victoria. SNC-Lavalin is the project manager at the site.

A further $15 million to $20 million is being spent at the George Tripp substation on Lochside Drive near Cedar Hill Cross Road, Bennett said. That facility serves 26,000 customers.

A new high-voltage transmission cable costing about $10 million will be installed to run between the two substations.

The system had been operating with two cables, based on the idea that if transmission on one is interrupted, the second can still feed electricity into downtown, Bennett said. “Now there will be three, so the city of Victoria will have backup in the event that two cables are somehow interrupted by weather or some other catastrophe.”

B.C. Hydro, a provincial Crown corporation, owns and runs more than 300 substations throughout the province. A substation is the link between the corporation’s transmission and distribution systems.

The investment in Victoria is similar to what’s happening throughout B.C., Bennett said. “We’re doing this sort of thing in many, many places.”

B.C. Hydro is spending $1.4 billion a year on infrastructure over the next decade, Bennett said. Include Site C, where a new dam and generating station are proposed on the Peace River, and the cost rises to $2.4 billion annually.

Paul Tutt, Hydro’s southern Vancouver Island station manager, said new technology will last 40 to 50 years.

He said equipment being installed has a proven track record, is more reliable than what is in place now, and requires less maintenance.

Without the upgrade, service reliability would start to drop off, Tutt added.

New equipment is being installed inside new buildings, rather than outdoors. This creates a more secure site for Hydro, which has faced thefts of copper in the past.