Federal energy minister names 5 priority power-line projects for grid expansion
Ottawa backs interprovincial transmission upgrades as Canada targets doubling its electric grid by 2050 to meet growing demand from industry and AI.
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The federal government is prioritizing five power-line projects, or interties, that will allow provinces to share excess electricity more efficiently. Energy Minister Tim Hodgson highlighted the projects Friday, which represent federal backing through financial and regulatory support.
Interties are transmission lines that cross borders or regions, moving electricity in both directions. The push comes as Ottawa aims to double Canada's electric grid by 2050 to meet surging demand from industry, electric vehicles, heat pumps, and artificial intelligence.
The five projects include an Alberta-British Columbia intertie boosted by roughly 150 megawatts; an Alberta-Saskatchewan upgrade increasing electricity trade by 250 megawatts near Medicine Hat; a Saskatchewan-Manitoba expansion adding up to two gigawatts along the Regina-Winnipeg corridor; a Prince Edward Island–New Brunswick interconnection with new subsea cables; and a British Columbia-Yukon grid connection via an 800-kilometre high-voltage line to support industrial development in Yukon's critical minerals sector.
Policy experts have called for building interties across the nation capable of transmitting more than 2,000 megawatts. None of the five projects announced Friday approaches that scale, but they represent a first step toward integrating provincial systems that currently trade more electricity with the U.S. than within Canada.
