The pending sale of AltaLink in a multibillion-dollar deal will not have any impact on the company’s power line plans for Central Alberta, says a company spokesman.
Last month, SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. announced it was selling AltaLink for $3.2 billion to Berkshire Hathaway Energy, which has US$70-billion worth of energy assets.
Headquartered in Calgary, AltaLink is Alberta’s largest power transmission company with 12,000 km of transmission lines.
AltaLink spokesman Peter Brodsky said the sale of the company has yet to be approved by regulators and the federal government.
“We don’t anticipate an answer to that until the end of this year,” he said. “Regardless of the outcome, it’s business as usual in terms of projects that are in place and projects that are before the regulators.
“There’s no direct impact on our day-to-day operations in any scenario.”
Among the company’s ongoing projects is the $1.65-billion, two-year Western Alberta Transmission Line project, a 350-km, 500-kilovolt direct current transmission line connecting the Genesee area west of Edmonton to the Langdon area east of Calgary.
Two-thirds of the 950 transmission towers are already in place and helicopters were out in the Innisfail area recently placing structures.
A $350-million project to upgrade transmission lines and facilities in the Red Deer region is awaiting Alberta Utilities Commission approval, expected in August.
Public hearings were held in Red Deer in March. Concerns about proposed routes were heard from residents in the Pines, West Park and a business owner in the city’s Railyards district.
Innisfail-area residents and the town also expressed concerns about proposed routes. Some residents favour AltaLink’s preferred route while another group of residents support an alternate route.
pcowley@www.reddeeradvocate.com