A new substation to be built in Langford will be able to provide power for 40,000 to 70,000 more homes on the West Shore, as part of a $3.2-billion B.C. Hydro plan to upgrade electrical infrastructure on Vancouver Island for the next decade.
A location has not yet been determined for the new substation, which is expected to be in service by 2030.
B.C. Hydro president Chris O’Riley, who was at the Victoria Horsey substation for the Friday announcement, said the Langford substation will be the second-largest — after Horsey — in the capital region, and will be able to be upgraded to accommodate expansion for “centuries.”
“This thing has been here closer to a century than not,” he said, gesturing to the Horsey substation behind him.
The new Langford substation will have “a whole pile” of underground main power lines radiating out toward customers, he said. B.C. Hydro will attempt to schedule work to coincide with other infrastructure work within municipalities to minimize interruptions, O’Riley said.
Friday’s funding announcement also included seismic upgrades at three dams in the Campbell River system, replacing aging transmission cables in the capital region and improving power reliability for North Island communities.
Langford-Juan de Fuca MLA Ravi Parmar welcomed news of a substation in his riding, saying it will provide reassurance for businesses and investors that there will be enough power to support growing West Shore communities. Langford’s population grew by more than 10,000 people between 2016 and 2021 to 46,584, according to the census.
Parmar said B.C. Hydro is looking at several central sites in Langford for the substation and expects to make a decision in the coming months, in hopes of completing the project between 2028 and 2030.
B.C. Hydro is expected to spend $36 billion over the next decade on upgrading electrical infrastructure across the province, at a rate of $3.6 billion a year.
Energy Minister Josie Osborne said the planned infrastructure upgrades across B.C. will fuel 10,500 to 12,500 jobs annually as the province takes steps to address rising electricity demand and the shift away from fossil fuels.
“We need to make sure that we’re ready to meet the growing demand for clean power and that we get the power to where it’s needed and when it’s needed,” Osborne said.
Power demand in the province is expected to increase by 15 per cent from current usage by 2030.
Just over two-thirds of Vancouver Island’s power during peak demand periods is typically sent from the mainland via sub-sea cables, some of which were damaged during 2021’s heat dome event, when temperatures soared into the 40s C.
O’Riley said one of the undersea cables linking Tsawwassen to Galiano Island is being replaced but he couldn’t provide a cost or timeline estimate, as the project is still in its early stages.
That replacement, which will bring a “significant reinforcement” to Vancouver Island’s electricity system, will be a straightforward process, as much of the infrastructure was built 15 years ago, he said. “We’re just really putting a cable under the water [and] taking out an existing cable.”
O’Riley said new renewable power-generation facilities such as wind and solar could be coming to Vancouver Island as part of a B.C.-wide effort to increase renewable-energy production by 3,000 gigawatt hours per year — about five per cent of the existing B.C. Hydro supply, or the power-consumption equivalent of 270,000 households.
While he declined to elaborate, O’Riley said some projects will be on Vancouver Island, and bids are expected to arrive in September.
There will still be an evaluation process that proposals will have to clear, he said. “I would really love to see some Vancouver Island projects come through.”
The planned Langford substation would be the first substation in the West Shore.
The Horsey station, the largest, supplies power to 74,000 customers, including the B.C. legislature and downtown Victoria.
The other substations in the capital region include George Tripp substation near McKenzie Avenue and Cedar Hill Cross Road, Esquimalt substation on Devonshire Road and the Goward substation opposite Camosun College’s Interurban campus.
