By Leah Murray

City investing in electric distribution upgrades

Jan 22, 2018 | 8:16 PM

MEDICINE HAT – City Council passed first reading on several bylaws that would see $3.03 million in upgrades to the City of Medicine Hat’s electric utility infrastructure.

The money will be spent replacing old transformers and distribution systems, replacing aging poles to prevent them from snapping and substation replacements and upgrades.

“You have to continually upgrade your assets to make sure we don’t have black outs, to make sure poles don’t fall down in windy storms,” said Councillor Phil Turnbull, chair of the Energy and Utilities committee. “So, they have a program of replacing certain things.”

Turnbull said there were more projects on the books but the city’s electric generation division GENCO said they could be done at a future date instead.

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“We retracted $1.9 million that we’re not going to do because we think we can push that off into the future,” said Turnbull.

$765,000 for overhead distribution upgrades and replacements targeting transformers at the end of useful life that have a high probability of near term failure. Replacement of 1.5 kilometres of small conductors which have limited current carrying capacity and no longer meet the growth and redevelopment of existing neighbourhoods.

$749,000 for the 2018 13KV Underground Distribution System program includes replacements, system extensions and system reconfiguration in order to maintain or improve system reliability.

$455,000 for installation of electric distribution infrastructure for new commercial services. This infrastructure includes new underground cable, and transformers, as well as other related underground and overhead infrastructure.

$440,000 for pole testing and replacement. A 2012 asset study identified an increasing number of poles are at or approaching end of life. If not replaced, these poles will fail. Failures are of particular concern during storm conditions. This will result in widespread outages, as well as increased safety concerns. The poles slated for replacement in this program are those nearest the point of failure. Emergency replacement of poles is also part of this program.

$621,000 for 2018 substation upgrades. Batteries and chargers, at various locations require replacement. Lightning rods will be installed within the substation to protect equipment from strike damages. Increased security measures to address the risks associated with trespassing and vandalism as well as monitoring of substations.

The bylaws still need to go through second and third readings.