As part of SaskPower’s Wood Pole Maintenance Program, the utility will be inspecting nearly 105,000 wood power poles throughout the province.

Crews will also perform tests on approximately 10,000 overhead transformers in rural Saskatchewan and install wildfire protection equipment on 1,000 poles in high-risk areas in the North.

"SaskPower is committed to providing reliable power to Saskatchewan, and with over 1.2 million wood power poles throughout the province, ensuring this infrastructure is inspected and maintained is key,” said Troy King, SaskPower Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy, Technology & Finance Officer. “Our top priority is to ensure the health and safety of our customers, employees, and contractors while maintaining power reliability.”

SaskPower crews will be looking for signs of damage, decay, and carpenter ant infestation, while also completing maintenance activities to extend the life of wood power poles. Whenever possible, damaged poles will be repaired or reinforced. Any poles too damaged to be repaired safely will be marked for replacement.

No power outages are necessary for this work. Crews will stay within the utility right-of-way as much as possible but will occasionally need to access private property. SaskPower will attempt to contact landowners prior to crews accessing their land.

For more information, or to see the schedule of SaskPower’s Wood Pole Maintenance Program, visit saskpower.com/woodpoles.

At a glance...

• SaskPower will inspect nearly 105,000 wood poles this year
• Crews will be looking for damage, decay, and carpenter ant infestation
• SaskPower will also be installing wildfire protection on 1,000 poles in Northern Saskatchewan
• Learn more at saskpower.com/woodpoles