Underwater power cable closer to reality

CHARLOTTETOWN, PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND - Planned electrical cable between Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick that would clear the way for the province to export even more green power to the mainland appears to be a step closer to reality.

The Prince Edward Island government has filed an application with Infrastructure Canada to have the cable installed under a joint federal-provincial infrastructure program.

The multimillion-dollar cable would run through the 13-kilometre Confederation Bridge. It would allow the province to export electricity produced by the IslandÂ’s wind farms as well as act as a backup to the two underwater electricity cables currently buried under the Northumberland Strait.

Those cables not only allow the province to export power but are the provinceÂ’s main plug-in to mainland power.

Most of the IslandÂ’s electricity supply comes from New Brunswick.

“There is an application in to Infrastructure Canada for an additional cable inside the Confederation Bridge,” federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea said, following a meeting with PEI Premier Robert Ghiz.

“That’s something that I am working on in Ottawa. The premier raised it as a matter of importance. I will go back to Ottawa and support the project.”

The project will cost between $60 and $70 million. That will be cost-shared between the federal and provincial governments and will include not only the cable underneath the bridge but bringing the lines to substations in Salisbury, New Brunswick, and Bedeque, PEI.

Premier Robert Ghiz said heÂ’s hoping heÂ’ll be able to make an announcement in the near future together with Shea.

The cable would cost Island taxpayers more than $30 million.

“It falls under an infrastructure program for green technologies,” added Ghiz.

The cable had been approved by the federal Liberals in 2005 but later cancelled when the Conservatives took office in Ottawa.

Then-federal Environment Minister Stephane Dion made the announcement in November 2005.

The project was expected to be completed by mid-2008.

The province is taking no chances this time around.

Energy Minister Richard Brown will be in Ottawa in an effort to push the project along.

He said the new cable, along with a potential deal to buy cheaper energy from Quebec, will go a long way towards reaching his goal of reducing electricity bills in PEI.

Brown said PEI’s high electricity rates — the highest in the country — are not only hurting Islanders in the pocketbook, they are impeding development because big companies do not want to establish on the Island and pay the high power rates.

“This cable is crucial,” said Brown.

“It’s a great project. It’s needed in PEI.”