B.C. Hydro looking to build by going deep
Downtown substations proposed below ground at park and school
B.C. Hydro is planning to replace two of its three aging substations in downtown Vancouver in the next couple of decades to prevent future brownouts and handle expected growth in electricity consumption.
But the high cost of real estate and scarcity of suitable locations sent the utility searching for space somewhere unexpected — underground. B.C. Hydro wants to build one new substation deep below the recently completed Emery Barnes Park in Yaletown and the other beneath the Lord Roberts School Annex at 1150 Nelson St. in the West End.
Jessica McDonald, CEO of B.C. Hydro, called it an “incredible opportunity” that could benefit residents. While she would not say how much cash the city could expect to receive in return for the subsurface lease, she gave a sense of the magnitude of community benefits the utility could fund if its overall plan was approved.
Among them are two new schools, improvements to a pair of parks, and new daycare spaces. Those benefits would all be subject to municipal approval, and they would also come on top of “a very substantial payment.”
If the plan went ahead, it would not be the first time an electrical substation — which transforms high voltage power to a lower voltage for domestic and business use — has been built underground. There’s already one at the corner of Richards and Dunsmuir streets under Cathedral Square park.
That underground substation, which the utility aims to refurbish as part of its long-term plan, was the first of its kind in North America and is still one of just two on the continent, though a third is being built in Toronto, McDonald said in a recent interview.
Together, the Cathedral Square substation, the Murrin substation at 721 Main St., and the Dal Grauer substation at 970 Burrard St. handle power for the downtown core. They’re sufficient now, but if changes aren’t made within 10 to 12 years, the city will start to experience brownouts, McDonald said. B.C. Hydro expects a 75 per cent increase in energy demand downtown over the next 30 years.
B.C. Hydro’s concept would take until 2039 to be completed.
Hydro is suggesting it pay for a new school in Coal Harbour and move students from the Lord Roberts Annex there in 2020.
The Lord Roberts Annex would be demolished, the property excavated, the underground substation built there and then a new school would be built on top. The estimated completion date is 2050.
Cathedral Square substation is to be upgraded by 2020.
Hydro is hoping for a lease on Emery Barnes Park soon, with transitional improvements to the park by 2020. By 2036, crews would take over the park and build the underground substation over five years. By 2039, a new Emery Barnes park would be finished above the new substation.
B.C. Hydro has presented its idea to the park and school boards and it is expected to launch public consultation today.
It is expecting to make decisions by late March.
Electric and magnetic fields surround electrical equipment and cause weak electric currents to flow through humans, according to Health Canada. McDonald said that under peak evening demand, the underground substation at Cathedral Square can give off a maximum magnetic field of 100 milligauss (mG) at surface level. By comparison, high-voltage transmission lines produce 81 mG, vacuums and hair dryers produce 300 mG and portable heaters produce 100 mG, according to B.C. Hydro.
Health Canada has issued a fact sheet on EMF, saying “there is no conclusive evidence of any harm caused by exposures at levels found in Canadian homes and schools, including those located just outside the boundaries of power line corridors.”
But the International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified magnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic and Health Canada and the World Health Organization say more research is needed.
Were the utility “only looking at it from a safety lens,” it would prefer its substations to be underground, McDonald said.
More than half of B.C. Hydro’s 300 substations are within 100 and 200 metres of public spaces like schools, parks or shopping areas, according to the utility.
McDonald said the utility’s alternative to this plan is to build two new above-ground substations, each of which would demand half a block of high-cost Vancouver real estate.
“It’s non-negotiable that we are going to have to have a new substation in Yaletown and a new substation in the West End,” McDonald said.