Open houses early next month will discuss the plan to build a 500-kilovolt electrical transmission line from Timmins to Chapleau and Wawa.
Hydro One vice-president of strategic projects and partnerships, Sonny Karunakaran says you can meet the project team and find out what point they’re at, and what’s to come.
He adds that there are a few years of development left on what the province considers a critical transmission line.
“The project is meant to be energized in 2030,” he notes, “so in order to meet that in-service date, we would envisage construction would start somewhere in 2028”
Think of the line as a highway, bringing power from the Northeast all the way to the Manitoba border, improving resilience and reliability and allowing electrification of industries and economic development and growth.
Karunakaran says the high voltage line will be a link to Thunder Bay, Atikokan and Kenora. It will also free up capacity on other lines in Ontario.
“So there is existing transmission in the area and as you build this 500 kV system it means that capacity would actually start to appear potentially on the 230 kV and 115 kV systems.”
Here is the audio of our interview with Karunakaran:
