SaskPower crews working in North Battleford. (Josh Ryan/battlefrdsNOW Staff)

By battlefordsNOW and meadowlakeNOW Staff

Regional projects

Repairs, upgrades coming from SaskPower

May 3, 2022 | 2:44 PM

Looking out the window at work, people might see crews from SaskPower working throughout northwest Saskatchewan.

Repairs and upgrades are being completed in multiple communities in and around the municipality. In the Battlefords, crews are currently busy around 100^th Street, between 17^th and 18^th Avenue. This is ongoing, multi-year work to replace a 4K volt line with a 25K volt line in order to improve service.

However, larger work is underway as well on connecting lines between communities and power grids. SaskPower spokesperson Joel Cherry said there are several projects that are currently ongoing in Saskatchewan, including work in April that finished rebuilding hundreds of kilometres of power lines, replacing thousands of wood poles and upgrading LED streetlights for towns and villages.

“It’s close to 1,000 in that area,” Cherry said. “These are more energy efficient, last longer than other bulbs, so that’s going to benefit people.”

The region avoided outages caused by turbulent weather over the past month in the south, which has allowed work to continue without much delay. Cherry said with the rural rebuild projects, there are more than $6 million in planned work and more than 200 km of power lines to replace in the North Battleford and Unity areas.

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“And then north of the [region] in Glaslyn and Spiritwood, there’s 60 kilometres to repair transmission lines,” Cherry said.

Other areas where there’s work include northwest of Wilkie, north of Marshall, north of Cavalier, north of Marsden and near Duperow, Landis, and Tramping Lake.

“Pretty substantial work going on in this part of the province, to make sure that we have a reliable, efficient supply of power in that area,” Barry said.

At the moment, Cherry noted SaskPower is moving along with plans from a few years ago to tackle power infrastructure. While the COVID-19 pandemic did affect smart meter deployment, other tasks were largely unaffected.

“When it comes to the regular maintenance, repair and upgrade work, it proceeded largely without delay,” Cherry said.

He added this current ramp up is one of the busiest sections of the year for SaskPower, coinciding nicely with improved weather conditions.

“There’s always some work year round, but most of it is needed in the summer,” he noted.

“Construction’s really kicking off in a big way right now and that will continue at least until when the snow falls.”

Jobs within cities and towns may have a brief impact on electricity during specific periods of the day at affected areas. Residents are advised to go online for more information on if they live near an area under construction.

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cjnbnews@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW