While politicians debate the issue on the campaign trail, major users and providers are split on the need for major transmission lines in the province.
The Heartland transmission line is already under construction, to bring power from west of Edmonton to the Industrial Heartland, and a review committee recommended earlier this year that the province build two north-south lines as quickly as possible.
The Industrial Power Consumers Association of Alberta is one of the groups not convinced the lines need to be built. Sheldon Fulton, with the association, said the province simply doesn’t need these large-scale projects.
“We don’t see the kind of load growth that is necessary for that amount of capacity to be added to the system at this time.”
Fulton said it is not a case that the system doesn’t need more power transmission, but in smaller projects in demand areas.
“We would rather see the focus on the regional transmission projects that need to get done.”
Industrial users pay the lion’s share of power costs and Fulton said the cost of the lines is going to come out of investment in Alberta.
He said when the lines get added to bills they will fall heavily on industrial users.
“What you are basically doing is taking $200 million a year out of industry and using it to finance transmission lines that are not needed at this point in time.”
One industrial user who does welcome the line is North West Upgrading. While the company’s board has not yet given full approval, North West plans to build a 50,000-barrel-per-day upgrader in Sturgeon County.
Doug Bertsch, the company’s vice-president of regulatory affairs, said after the first 50,000-barrel project, the company is considering subsequent phases and they would need the Heartland line to operate.
“We have been advised by the Alberta Electric Systems Operator (AESO) that there is sufficient power for phase one, but the Heartland system must be reinforced,” he said.
Tim le Riche, a spokesperson for EPCOR, part of the group building the Heartland line, said the power lines are a needed investment in the province.
“There has been no upgrade, or significant upgrade, to the transmission system in Alberta for more than two decades and the province has grown at a rate that is, generally speaking, equal to a city twice the size of Red Deer every year.”
He said the Heartland line is part of a larger grid, which will strengthen the overall power system.
“There is a need for transmission across the province and the Heartland is one of the legs of that upgrade.”
When the review committee recommended the lines be built right away they relied on the projections and research from AESO. Greg Retzer, director of transmission project delivery for AESO, said the power lines that are proposed for construction are a generational investment.
“Our demand for electricity has doubled over the last 20 years and it is projected to double again over the next 20 years.”
When the province hit an all-time high earlier this year for power use, Retzer said there was still room in the transmission system for more generation, but it was very limited.
He said while the system could add more generation, it can’t add it in the places where generators want to build.
“We have generators that want to invest, they want to put their money in place, they want to build wind farms, but in the case today we don’t have the infrastructure in place.”
