$9M investment part of 10-year improvement plan in city

Starting today, SaskPower crews will be upgrading electrical equipment in downtown Regina to improve overall power reliability.

“SaskPower has a number of projects planned for Regina’s downtown over the coming months,” said Nidal Dabghi, SaskPower’s Acting Vice-President of Distribution and Customer Services. “Some of the underground infrastructure in this area is more than 50-years-old. Replacing and modernizing this aging equipment will go a long way towards ensuring safe and reliable service for customers in that area.”

SaskPower has invested $28 million on the downtown-Regina infrastructure project since it began in 2012. We plan to invest an estimated $9 million on projects planned for 2018.

This year’s work is happening in a number of downtown locations. Crews will be updating equipment installed on our overhead lines, as well as replacing some existing power poles. For underground facilities, we’ll be renewing and replacing 800 meters of duct bank that houses underground power lines, as well as installing new switches and other equipment. The project also involves a general inspection of our underground infrastructure so we can plan future work. All of this will improve reliability and, in the event of an outage, will allow SaskPower to diagnose the problem and restore power more quickly. Some preliminary work has been done already, but the bulk of the work will begin today and last until the end of the year.

“Though there will likely still be some temporary inconveniences like short outages and road restrictions, we are taking steps to keep disruptions at a minimum,” said Dabghi. “We’ll also do our best to inform our customers about the impacts of the work ahead of time.”

For more detailed information on the locations for this project as well as more information on other construction projects underway at SaskPower, go to www.saskpower.com.

At a glance...

• SaskPower is investing $9 million in 2018 as part of a 10-year downtown-Regina improvement plan.
• This work will increase the reliability of power in the area.
• Crews are replacing aging underground and overhead electrical facilities and equipment, and installing new duct banks.