We’re extending the life of our power poles. This is part of our annual maintenance program. We’re:
- inspecting poles
- treating poles
- replacing poles
Why We’re Doing It
We have over 1.2 million power poles in our province. This work helps extend the life of the poles from 30 to 35 years to more than 60 years! It’ll also saves money. How? Well it costs less than $50 per pole to maintain a power pole. But replacing a pole costs $2,500 on average.
This work will also:
- increase safety for our employees and customers
- continue to provide reliable power across the province
Our Progress So Far
We are continuing to invest in our infrastructure. In 2021, our plan is to have our crews:
- inspect 114,000 wood power poles
- replace 3,500 wood power poles
We’ll be on the lookout for signs of:
- decay
- carpenter ant infestation
- damage
This way we can take care of any issues right away. Which will delay the poles replacement in the future.
As part of this work, crews will also:
- replace over 1,500 crossarms, and rebuild lines with poor crossarms in some locations
- inspect over 15,000 guy wires (cables that add stability to poles)
- replace over 4,500 safety guards on guy wires
- inspect grounding at over 8,255 rural overhead transformers
Minimizing the Impact to You
We’ll stay within the right-of-way as much as we can. But sometimes our crews may need access to your property to perform the work. If this happens, we’ll make sure we’re respectful of our surroundings.
Respecting the Local Environment
Extending the life of our power poles helps to make sure they don’t end up in the landfill. That and we’re saving a tree while lowering the impact to the environment.
Benefits to Local Communities
This work allows us to lower the life cycle costs of power poles. The estimated cost of the project in 2021 is $23.1 million. This includes $10.5 million on replacements and reinforcement, $7.9 million to rebuild or replace crossarms and $4.7 million on wood pole testing and treatment. During this work, we’ll do other maintenance and testing as needed while we are in the area.
Keeping You Informed
You may see us working in:
- Carlyle – May to September
- Kindersley – May to August
- Hudson Bay – May
- Lloydminster – May
- La Ronge district, Wollaston Lake – August
- Candle Lake – August to October
- Turtleford – August and/ or September
- Shellbrook – August and/ or September
- Rosthern – August and/ or September
- Creighton – September to October
To meet your needs, our crews may work outside of these dates. We do our best to lower the impact for customers and agriculture operations.
Express Yourself