The Campbell River power grid will be a bit stronger this fall as BC Hydro increases capacity and reliability to the north end of the city to target Quadra Island.
“There are two circuits that go to Quadra Island from the Campbell River Substation, and the one that goes across Seymour Narrows doesn’t have the capacity to carry the entire Quadra customer load,” says Stephen Watson, spokesperson for BC Hydro. “The primary driver of this project is to increase its capacity to provide complete back-up abilities so we have two circuits able to carry the Island load.”
BC Hydro is nearing completion of power grid additions and reconfigurations within Campbell River so the additional circuit capacity to the Quadra area can be achieved.
The additional circuit within the city will also provide benefits to Campbell River and allow for an increase in capacity to the power line that passes John Hart.
The planned construction work at John Hart next summer will require additional construction and staging electricity needs.
“A more versatile power grid will provide BC Hydro crews with more switching options in response to power outages,” Watson says.
With some of the project work happening along Homewood Road and directly beside a wetland and Nunns Creek, BC Hydro has provided a $5,000 donation to the Greenways Land Trust.
The cost of the system improvement project, expected to be complete be the end of October, is about $2.5 million.