Alberta’s independent utilities regulator has approved, with conditions, an application for the Heartland Transmission Project, including its preferred east route option.
Alberta's independent utilities regulator, the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC), has approved, with conditions, an application for the Heartland Transmission Project, including its preferred east route option.
In Decision 2011-436, issued today, the Alberta Utilities Commission found the application from AltaLink Management Ltd. and EPCOR Distribution & Transmission Inc. to build the Edmonton-area Heartland line was in the public interest and met the need specified in law by the provincial government.
The Heartland line, a proposed 500-kilovolt, double-circuit transmission line with an associated substation and an 18-km 240-kilovolt transmission connection, would extend approximately 65 km from south Edmonton to the Heartland region near Fort Saskatchewan.
The need for the line was specified by the Alberta government as critical transmission infrastructure in 2009 in the Electric Statutes Amendment Act.
The AUC has approved the applicants’ preferred east route for the line, which skirts the city of Edmonton to the south and east and travels through an existing transportation and utility corridor (TUC) for roughly half the line’s length.
The commission concluded the preferred east route is both in the public interest and superior to the alternate west route based on land-use, cost and environmental considerations.
The preferred east route would utilize the public lands of the TUC, which were set aside to provide a location for this type of project.
The commission has required monopoles for a 9.5-km stretch from Hwy. 14 to Baseline Road, to reduce the visual impact on residents in the area. In addition, the Commission asked the applicants to examine additional options for routing the line near the Colchester Elementary School to reduce visual impact, which could move the line a further 50 metres, to 190 metres from the schoolyard, while remaining 213 metres from the school building.
Estimates provided by the applicants indicated that the cost for the line on the preferred route, without monopoles, would be $582 million. The cost with monopoles would be approximately $610 million.
Today’s decision marks the completion of an AUC review procedure that stretches back to 2009 and represents the most substantial application process in the AUC’s history, with a 25-day oral hearing, more than 1,300 exhibits, thousands of documents and more than 170 witnesses.
JOC DIGITAL MEDIA
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