BC Hydro completes $20-million upgrade at a Coquitlam substation
Substations are an important part of the electrical system. They receive high voltage power from transmission lines and transform that power to a lower voltage so it can be distributed to homes and businesses.
Work at the Como Lake Substation began in July 2013. BC Hydro installed:
- A new transformer, bringing the total number of transformers at the substation up to five
- Equipment that will enable the addition of 12 distribution feeders
- New protective equipment, including switches and circuit breakers, which connect high voltage electrical equipment inside the substation to the lower voltage switchgear – similar to an electrical panel in a home but much larger.
This upgrade is just one of hundreds of BC HydroÂ’s capital projects underway throughout B.C. that, together, make up one of the largest expansions of electrical infrastructure in the provinceÂ’s history.
BC Hydro will invest, on average, $2.4 billion a year over the next 10 years in the electricity system including upgrades to transmission and distribution systems and dams and generating stations.
Related News

Germany’s renewable energy dreams derailed by cheap Russian gas, electricity grid expansion woes
BERLIN - On a blazing hot August day on Germany’s Baltic Sea coast, a few hundred tourists skip the beach to visit the “Fascination Offshore Wind” exhibition, held in the port of Mukran at the Arkona wind park. They stand facing the sea, gawking at white fiberglass blades, which at 250 feet are longer than the wingspan of a 747 aircraft. Those blades, they’re told, will soon be spinning atop 60 wind-turbine towers bolted to concrete pilings driven deep into the seabed 20 miles offshore. By early 2019, Arkona is expected to generate 385 megawatts, enough electricity to power 400,000…