Crews erect the city's MH-10 substation near Box Springs Road in February of 2020. Administrators in the utility department say planning is underway on constructing the next substation in the city's grid located in the southwest area of the city.--News File Photo
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
Potential sites for a new electrical substation in southwest Medicine Hat are ready to go back for community consultation before the process moves on to a provincial regulatory body likely in early 2022.
Utility division head Brad Maynes told Thursday’s meeting of the utility and infrastructure committee about feedback from an initial mailout on the locations, including one near the Cypress County hamlet of Desert Blume.
“We have heard a significant amount of feedback,” he said, adding some new work to scale the facility has been done since summer. “We will try to make as least obtrusive as possible, because this is large infrastructure than can impact the community.”
The station, to be known as MHS-11, would increase electrical service to the region, including areas of Cypress County that sits in the City of Medicine Hat’s power franchise area.
The most recently built substation, MHS-10, was completed last year to expand power function and delivery to the city’s northwest industrial quadrant.
If approved the next station would begin being built in 2023.
“Our ability to deliver power, really south of the Trans-Canada Highway, has been limited for some time while we have seen residential commercial and industrial growth in that area,” said Maynes.
The substation would be placed on the city’s existing southern transmission line in one of two potential places.
One is located north of S. Boundary Road, near a T-intersection of Range Road 61A. That road is the turnoff to Desert Blume.
A second location is adjacent to Gershaw Drive where the roadway becomes Highway 3 at the city’s limits. That would be accessible via Township Road 122, which is the access for a cluster of five county acreages.
All residents in the immediate vicinity, either in the county or city, have the ability to provide feedback or object when the issue moves to an approval process with the Alberta Utilities Commission.
