Mainwaring Substation upgrade
We’re upgrading the Mainwaring Substation to continue providing reliable electricity for the 60,000 homes and businesses it serves over the next 30 years.
What's new
Mainwaring Substation upgrade construction started in January 2023.
Activities in 2023 will include:
- Completing site preparation: removing vegetation, adjusting and/or adding fencing, removing the microwave tower on the southeast side of the site, and developing a temporary parking lot outside the fence on the northeast side of the site.
- Setting up trailers and securing construction power.
- Excavation in the southwest part of the site where the new building and retaining wall will be built.
- Building foundations and completing other work below ground including constructing some distribution infrastructure in the southwest part of the site.
Street parking restrictions January 9, 2023 to November 30, 2025
Parking is restricted on 47th Avenue on the south side of the street from the alley to approximately halfway to Inverness Street. This is to allow safe access and exit for construction traffic and workers on to 47th Avenue.
Mainwaring Substation supplies reliable electricity to over 60,000 homes and businesses in East Vancouver. This important piece of our infrastructure needs some upgrades to replace aging equipment.
Upgrades include replacing two transformers in their existing location, constructing a new two-story building to house equipment that is currently outdoors, and removing existing outdoor equipment.
After the project is complete, we’ll landscape the site where required. Below you can see a rendering of the new building on the southwest corner of the substation, the location of the new transformers, a view inside the new building, and the area where equipment will be removed are shown below.
Site preparation started in late 2022 and the main construction work started in 2023. The expected in-service date is December 2026.
Mainwaring Substation, located at the intersection of Inverness Street and 47th Avenue, is a distribution substation built in the 1950s. The substation takes electricity from transmission lines at a higher voltage and converts it to the voltage required to supply power to the 60,000 homes and businesses it serves.
The upgrade is important to ensure that we can continue to meet the needs of the substation’s service area which is west to Cambie Street, east to Boundary Road, and north to 12th Avenue.
This upgrade will provide increased reliability to the electrical system by replacing aging equipment that's nearing end-of-life. This upgrade will also prepare for future growth in the area by modifying the substation layout to better prepare for future upgrades.
Contact us
If you have questions about the project or feedback you’d like to share, please reach out.
projects@bchydro.com
604 623 4472
Toll free: 1 866 647 3334