Riel Terminal Station: HVDC Intertie, Grid Reliability

Riel Terminal Station enhances Manitoba Hydro's grid reliability, adding a second U.S. intertie for 500 kV HVDC imports and exports, reducing dependence on Dorsey, and improving resilience for Winnipeg and Manitoba during outages and drought.

What's Behind the News

A Manitoba Hydro station adding a second 500 kV U.S. intertie to strengthen HVDC grid reliability for Winnipeg.

500 kV line from Dorsey to Minnesota; second feed point at Riel
Reduces reliance on Dorsey end-point; improves contingencies
Enhances imports during droughts and emergency events
HVDC resilience informed by 1996 windstorm tower failures

The reliability and security of Manitoba's electricity supply recently received a boost with the completion of Manitoba Hydro's new Riel Terminal Station just east of Winnipeg.

Riel will improve the reliability of the transmission system serving Winnipeg and southern Manitoba, where Winnipeg's underground infrastructure is being rebuilt, by providing a second location where electricity imported from the United States on an existing 500,000-volt transmission line can be fed into Manitoba Hydro's power grid.

"The transmission line to the U.S. is an important piece of Manitoba Hydro's system - it delivers surplus electricity to the U.S., including the 230-kV North Dakota intertie and other interconnections, and provides access to an alternate supply of energy in the event of an emergency or prolonged drought," said Scott Thomson, President and CEO, Manitoba Hydro. "With the energizing of Riel, we now have a second point where we can inject electricity from the U.S. into our system, helping ensure energy will be there when we need it."

The 500,000-volt transmission line runs from Dorsey Station, northwest of Winnipeg, to the line to Minnesota and connects into the U.S. grid. Construction of Riel began after studies concluded it was necessary to reduce dependence on the existing end-point of the line at Dorsey, while NEB hearings on the Manitoba-Minnesota line addressed related concerns. Those studies were conducted after a major windstorm in September 1996 severely damaged 19 towers on Manitoba Hydro's high voltage direct current HVDC lines north of Dorsey, adjacent to the Dorsey-Minnesota transmission line.