Underwater power cable closer to reality

subscribe

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.”

Related News

residential electrical automation

What 2018 Grid Edge Trends Reveal About 2019

WASHINGTON - Which grid edge trends will continue into 2019, and what kind of disruption is on the horizon in the coming year?

From advanced metering infrastructure endpoints to electric-vehicle chargers, grid edge venture capital investments to demand response events, hundreds of data points go into tracking new trends at the edge of the grid.

Trends across these variables tell a story of transition, but perhaps not yet transformation. Customers hold more power than ever before in 2019, with utilities and vendors innovating to take advantage of new opportunities behind the meter. Meanwhile, external factors can always throw things off-course, and reliability…

READ MORE
Kakrapar nuclear plant

India’s Kakrapur 3 achieves criticality

READ MORE

electricity in restaurant

Extensive Disaster Planning at Electric & Gas Utilities Means Lights Will Stay On

READ MORE

tornado survivor

Survivors of deadly tornadoes may go weeks without heat, water, electricity, Kentucky officials say

READ MORE

china coal station

China aims to reduce coal power production

READ MORE