Metro North Transmission Project

We're planning to build an additional 230 kilovolt (kV) transmission line(s) between Coquitlam and Vancouver, to increase electrical transmission capacity and strengthen the reliability of the network.

This improvement could be built with a combination of overhead lines – using existing rights-of-way (the land under and around our power lines) wherever possible – and underground circuits in city streets. Modifications to existing substations will be required to support the new line(s).

Our current transmission system is approaching its limit for reliability. Without these improvements, we could see potential outages or service interruptions to many homes and businesses.

The Metro North Transmission Project is part of a long-term strategy to meet load growth and ensure reliability of the transmission network for the Metro Vancouver area.

The transmission system improvement proposes:

• About 10km of overhead lines and 20km of underground cables from Meridian Substation in Coquitlam through Anmore, Port Moody, and Burnaby to the Mount Pleasant Substation in Vancouver.
• Replacement of existing overhead lines in Anmore and Port Moody, resulting in fewer, taller poles than existing in these areas.
• An overhead crossing of Burrard Inlet, within the current right-of-way.
• A new underground route through Burnaby and Vancouver.

Of the three alternatives studied, this was selected as it has:

• fewer overall residents and property owners potentially impacted by construction.
• lower seismic and construction risks.
• the most capacity for the investment.

Adding additional transmission lines to the regional transmission system is the most cost-effective solution to address increasing electricity demand in Metro Vancouver. Some of the benefits include:

• New transmission will also increase electrical transmission capacity and strengthen the reliability of the Metro Vancouver electricity network.
• It will benefit residential and business customers by supporting growth, reducing the risk of overloading aging cables, and facilitating redistribution of electricity in the event of circuit outages.
• Our current transmission system is near its limit and without these improvements the network faces reduced service reliability. Under certain conditions this reduced reliability could mean outages for the equivalent of 30,000 homes and businesses and service interruption for the equivalent of 90,000 homes and businesses.

Consultation began in Summer 2013, with the leading alternative identified in October 2016.  

The project is on hold. We plan to have a new date for the project early next year, based on a new load forecast.

We manage our projects in a financially, socially, and environmentally sustainable way. We're working with independent environmental consulting firms, to identify impacts and develop mitigation strategies now to inform environmental management and monitoring activities should the project proceed to construction. We'll report on these findings and strategies within our application to the BC Utilities Commission.

We're looking at:

• Air quality
• Noise
• Fish, fish habitat and aquatic biology
• Vegetation including at-risk plant species
• Wetland habitat, health and function
• Wildlife and wildlife habitat
• Visual landscapes
• Lane and resource use including parks, recreational and tourism areas, utilities and land use plans
• Contaminated sites
• Economy
• Community
• Heritage resources

Since 2013 we've held over 90 meetings with interested stakeholders and have hosted 15 public open house events.

Input from local and regional governments, transportation authorities, community groups, and others has informed the project design and route. We have also included feedback from our ongoing engagement with First Nations, from meetings with affected property owners, and the findings from technical work done to date.