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Westbank Substation Upgrade Project

Image overlooking West End Vancouver
The Westbank Substation Upgrade project will ensure that we continue to provide clean, reliable energy to communities in West Kelowna and Peachland.

What's new

We're in the early planning stages of the Westbank Substation Upgrade project that will ensure we continue to provide clean, reliable energy to communities in West Kelowna and Peachland.

The Westbank Substation has been in service since the early 1970s, reliably serving more than 22,000 customers in West Kelowna and Peachland. The station is supplied with electricity from one 138 kilovolt transmission line from Nicola Substation east of Merritt.

The project will allow us to increase the substation's capacity, replace end-of-life equipment and ensure we can connect a new transmission line planned as part of the West Kelowna Transmission Project. The substation will be expanded to the west and will require Crown property adjacent to the substation.

Map of the Westbank Substation Upgrade Project

We need to upgrade the substation in order to:

  • Meet the peak electricity demand, which is expected to grow in the coming years; and,
  • Replace major equipment that is at or near end-of-life.

Westbank Substation is an existing substation on Shannon Lake Road near Kinsmen Athletic Park in West Kelowna.

The project will ensure we continue to provide clean, reliable energy to communities in West Kelowna and Peachland that are served by the substation.

The project includes an expansion of the substation to the west. This will require us to acquire Crown property adjacent to the substation.

We're in the early planning stages of the project and don't expect to start construction until 2022. The current in-service date for the project is 2024.

The project will require a Certificate of Public Necessity and Convenience (CPCN) application to be submitted to the BC Utilities Commission (BCUC).

During the planning phases of the project, desktop and field environmental studies will be undertaken to investigate archaeological potential, wildlife and wildlife habitat, vegetation, and soil characterization.

We've initiated First Nations consultation, stakeholder engagement, environmental and engineering studies for the substation project. Please sign up at the link below if you'd like to receive project updates and information on consultation activities via email.

Contact

Email: projects@bchydro.com
Phone: 604 623 4472
Toll free: 1 866 647 3334

 

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