Energy minister to name 5 priority power-line projects for federal backing today

The federal government is expected to announce on Friday that it will prioritize infrastructure upgrades that would allow provinces to share excess electricity more cheaply and easily.

Energy Minister Tim Hodgson is expected to highlight five power-line projects, or interties, that the federal government is working on with the provinces and the Yukon. Interties are power lines that cross borders or regions, transmitting electricity in both directions.

A senior government official who was not authorized to speak publicly shared the details of Friday’s announcement in advance with CBC News. 

While no new dollar figure will be attached to the announcement, the federal government will “prioritize financial and regulatory support” for the five projects, CBC has learned.

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Carney announces national strategy to double Canada’s electricity grid by 2050

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Powering Canada Strong, a new national strategy aimed at doubling Canada’s electric capacity by 2050 and lowering electricity costs for seven in 10 households by expanding the role of natural gas in the country’s energy mix. The plan will be fine-tuned during four months of consultation with provinces and stakeholders.

These new intertie projects come as Ottawa has set the ambitious goal of doubling Canada’s electric grid by 2050 to meet the growing demand from industry, electric vehicles, heat pumps and artificial intelligence. 

While increasing generating capacity is part of that plan, the federal government has said it is committed to helping connect provincial grids. Those systems tend to trade more electricity with the U.S. than they do within Canada. 

Policy experts have called for building interties across the nation capable of transmitting more than 2,000 megawatts of power. To put that in perspective, that’s a power line powerful enough to transmit enough electricity generated by two Site C hydroelectric dams in B.C.

None of the projects announced on Friday approaches that scale. 

Here are the five projects that are expected to be announced:

Alberta-British Columbia intertie 

• The Alberta-British Columbia intertie is expected to be boosted by roughly 150 megawatts.

Alberta-Saskatchewan intertie 

• The project involves increasing electricity trade between the two provinces by 250 megawatts by replacing and upgrading the McNeill converter station near Medicine Hat, Alta.

Saskatchewan-Manitoba intertie expansion

• This expansion would increase transfer capability by up to two gigawatts along the Regina-Winnipeg corridor.

P.E.I.-New Brunswick interconnection expansion

• New subsea cables will connect Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick and are also intended to reinforce the transmission system linking those provinces and Nova Scotia.

British Columbia-Yukon grid connect

• This project is supposed to link Yukon’s grid to B.C.’s through an 800-kilometre, high-voltage line in hopes of supporting “industrial and economic development in Yukon, including the critical minerals sector,” according to the government.