The federal government is expected to announce on Friday that it will prioritize infrastructure upgrades that would allow provinces to share excess electricity more cheaply and easily.
Energy Minister Tim Hodgson is expected to highlight five power-line projects, or interties, that the federal government is working on with the provinces and the Yukon. Interties are power lines that cross borders or regions, transmitting electricity in both directions.
A senior government official who was not authorized to speak publicly shared the details of Friday’s announcement in advance with CBC News.
While no new dollar figure will be attached to the announcement, the federal government will “prioritize financial and regulatory support” for the five projects, CBC has learned.
Carney announces national strategy to double Canada’s electricity grid by 2050
These new intertie projects come as Ottawa has set the ambitious goal of doubling Canada’s electric grid by 2050 to meet the growing demand from industry, electric vehicles, heat pumps and artificial intelligence.
While increasing generating capacity is part of that plan, the federal government has said it is committed to helping connect provincial grids. Those systems tend to trade more electricity with the U.S. than they do within Canada.
Policy experts have called for building interties across the nation capable of transmitting more than 2,000 megawatts of power. To put that in perspective, that’s a power line powerful enough to transmit enough electricity generated by two Site C hydroelectric dams in B.C.
None of the projects announced on Friday approaches that scale.
Carney says the world is facing an ‘energy crisis’ and Canada must help solve it
Here are the five projects that are expected to be announced:
Natural gas to play key role in strategy to double Canada’s electricity grid by 2050
