North Coast electrification and economic development

The North Coast is seeing significant growth in many areas, including ports, mining, hydrogen, technology and liquified natural gas and the potential demand for electricity exceeds the capacity of the existing transmission system.

To support economic development and to meet the growing demand from customers in northwest BC we're proposing to expand our transmission infrastructure by building new transmission lines, upgrading existing lines, expanding or upgrading substations, and expanding capacitor stations.

The proposed transmission system expansion also supports BC Hydro’s reconciliation objectives. We are partnering with First Nations on new approaches to infrastructure development, including an opportunity for First Nations co-ownership of the North Coast Transmission Line.

The North Coast is currently supplied by 450 km of 500 kilovolt (kV) radial transmission lines from Williston Substation near Prince George to Skeena Substation near Terrace. Glenannan and Telkwa substations are located along the 500 kV lines.

From Terrace, transmission lines head north towards the Aiyansh substation near Gitlaxt'aamiks (formerly New Aiyansh), south to Kitimat, and west to Prince Rupert.

We're proposing to develop:

• New 500 kV transmission lines and associated infrastructure from Williston Substation near Prince George to Skeena Substation in Terrace.
• New 500 kV infrastructure north of Terrace from Skeena Substation to Bob Quinn Substation.
• New transmission infrastructure in the Prince Rupert area.

We’re also proposing to upgrade the existing 500 kV transmission lines between Williston and Skeena substations.

We continue to engage with existing and potential customers to understand their plans. We may also need to expand our transmission system south to Kitimat and west to Prince Rupert depending on customer demand and location. The proposed projects as well as other potential projects are shown in the following figure.

North Coast Electrification project map

Select the project map [PDF, 1.9 MB] to view it at a larger size.

We’re engaging with potentially impacted First Nations to understand their interests and concerns and undertaking public engagement relative to all of our proposed system expansions.

An overview of each proposed project is provided below.

North Coast Transmission Line

We're proposing to build the new 500 kV transmission lines and associated infrastructure from Prince George to Terrace through two phases:

Phase 1: Prince George to Glenannan Transmission

• An approximately 170 km line from Williston to Glenannan substation.

Phase 2 : Glenannan to Terrace Transmission

• An approximately 130 km line from Glenannan substation to Telkwa substation.
• An approximately 145 km line from Telkwa substation to Skeena substation.

Additional infrastructure for both phases includes fibre optic cable installed on new or existing transmission structures, capacitor station expansion, and substation upgrades or expansion.

Upgrading the existing 500 kV transmission lines from Prince George to Terrace 

To make the most effective use of the existing 500 kV infrastructure from Prince George to Terrace and ensure that we can reliably deliver the electricity needed to the North Coast, we’re proposing to make upgrades along the lines including thermal upgrades and installing anti-cascading towers. 

The purpose of thermal upgrades is to increase the distance between the transmission lines and the ground to increase the amount of electricity that the lines can carry and, along with the new transmission lines, increase the amount of electricity available to serve customers in the North Coast region.  

We also propose to install new anti-cascading towers that will limit the potential for a “domino effect” in the unlikely event a tower fails. This will enable us to limit damage and more quickly restore power should there be an issue on the line.

North of Terrace Transmission

We’re proposing to develop new transmission infrastructure from Skeena Substation near Terrace to Bob Quinn Substation to connect industrial customers who’ve advanced their request to interconnect to our system. The preliminary plan is to develop the new transmission lines and substations in two segments. We're in the early stages of planning the route, including considering the option to generally follow the Northwest Transmission Line corridor, where possible. 

Prince Rupert to Ridley Island Transmission

We’re proposing to develop a new transmission line from Rupert Substation to the Port of Prince Rupert, potentially expand Rupert Substation and develop a new substation on or adjacent to Port lands. This new infrastructure will enable us to respond to requests for more electricity from customers located in the Port of Prince Rupert.

Additional transmission system expansion past Terrace

Through our 2023 Expression of Interest (EOI) process existing and potential  industrial customers shared their potential level, location and timing of demand in the North Coast. Based on these responses, further new transmission infrastructure may be needed south and west of Terrace. We continue to engage with current and potential customers and to review our existing infrastructure to help us understand what the existing infrastructure can handle and the type of new infrastructure that may be needed, including new transmission line and substation infrastructure.

What new infrastructure is needed will ultimately depend on which customer projects advance.

The Prince George to Terrace Capacitors Project (PGTC) is under construction. Through this project, we're building three new capacitor stations along the existing 500 kV lines from Williston Substation near Prince George to Skeena Substation near Terrace to allow more electricity to pass through these lines. PGTC is anticipated to be in service by 2028 and electricity to be provided by the project is already fully subscribed.

We're also undertaking the Northwest Substations Outage Mitigation project to mitigate potential outages by replacing equipment at Minette, Skeena, Glenannan, and Williston substations and working to interconnect customers to our system.

To support demand, we issued Calls for Power in 2024 and 2025. In December 2024 we awarded 10 Electricity Purchase Agreements that will provide nearly 5,000 gigawatt-hours (GWh) per year of clean, renewable electricity to our grid. The 2025 Call for Power is currently underway.

Engagement on all projects we’re advancing is ongoing, and we look forward to discussing our progress with you.

Engagement with our Indigenous partners is also underway, and this aligns with our commitment to co-design the environmental review and explore Indigenous co-ownership of the proposed North Coast Transmission Line, as well other means of Indigenous participation.

We’re hosting open houses in June 2025 with a focus on the North Coast Transmission Line.

Refer to the reports and documents section below to view the information presented at the 2023 and 2024 open houses.

As planning for the proposed projects progresses, we'll hold more open houses and other events or activities to enable us to discuss our plans with you.

Feel free to contact us at any time. 

Our proposed schedule is for North Coast Transmission Line Phase 1 (Prince George to Glenannan Transmission) to be in operation by Fall 2030 and Phase 2 (Glenannan to Terrace Transmission) to be in operation by mid-2032. We’re working to advance the schedule where possible.

For other proposed projects, we’re working to develop schedules and will provide information on the schedules when it’s available.