Hydro-Québec will expand their transmission lines

Quebecers can expect to see a forest of new transmission lines over the next few years.

On Monday, Hydro-Québec announced the launch of the first work phase to develop and strengthen its electricity transmission network – the high-voltage lines that transport large quantities of electricity from where it’s produced to the electrical substations that redistribute it to customers.

Hydro-Québec’s intention to massively increase its electricity production is already well known, but once produced, this electricity must be transported.

By 2035, the electric company plans to invest a total of $50 billion to install some 5,000 kilometres of transmission lines, about half of which will be high-voltage (735 kilovolts and 315 kilovolts) and the other half will be intermediate-voltage (between 69 kV and 315 kV) for regional development and local loads.

1,600 new electric pylons

The first phase announced Monday represents investments of about $10 billion to strengthen the existing network, build nearly 850 kilometres of new 735 kV or 315 kV transmission lines and add five new electrical substations.

Hydro-Québec plans to install 1,600 new electrical pylons within the first phase.

This phase will be carried out on three axes: one on the North Shore in the corridor between Sept-Îles and Baie-Comeau, the second in the Appalaches-Bas-Saint-Laurent sector covering the Beauce area to the sector bordering the New Brunswick border near Edmundston, and the third in the Saint-Laurent Valley, inland from the North Shore from the Capitale-Nationale region to the Lanaudière region and Mauricie.

Hydro’s Executive Vice President and Chief Infrastructure Officer, Claudine Bouchard, said that this work, which is expected to generate $7 billion in benefits, will benefit the regions where it will take place.

“You have seen that we have two major development axis projects in the regions of Quebec and so we will ensure that we create regional economic benefits in these regions and hire the workforce to be able to develop the lines.”

The exact locations where these lines will be built have not been determined, but Hydro-Québec will not hide its preference for installations in existing corridors.

“Of course, not opening a new corridor is always a route with less impact, but at the same time, we must take into account the communities concerns. That is why we are currently in preliminary consultations to hear this type of element from our partners from the different communities in the regions concerned by the three axes of the transport project,” said Bouchard.

However, if such corridors already exist in the North Shore and Vallée du Saint-Laurent area, this is not the case in the Appalaches-Bas-Saint-Laurent corridor.

Social acceptability

In presenting this first phase on Monday, Bouchard placed emphasized social acceptability and the consultations to be held with the 25 regional county municipalities (RCMs), around 200 municipalities and the dozen indigenous communities that will be impacted by these structures.

Hydro-Québec decided to get ahead of the curve by starting consultations before even thinking about routes, an unprecedented approach for the company.

“This is the first time that we are meeting with representatives non-Indigenous and Indigenous communities to talk with these people and take into account their concerns or their intention to develop their territory with our project. Afterwards, we will approach citizens to find the least impactful route,” said Bouchard.

The three corridors aim to improve the system’s reliability and resilience to increasingly frequent extreme weather events. On the North-Shore, the more targeted objective is to enable the development of new sources of renewable energy and support industrial development; on the Appalaches-Bas-Saint-Laurent axis, the company wants to support the development of wind power potential in eastern Quebec, while the development of the Saint-Laurent Valley axis will allow the transmission of additional energy from northern and eastern Quebec, increase the capacity of high-voltage lines that have reached their limits and supply the growing needs of urban centres in the south of the province.

The new infrastructures will be gradually put into service between 2031 and 2036.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews