Letter from Jim Graham:
You will know that the provincial government has instructed Manitoba Hydro to build a new transmission line to Winnipeg from the Nelson River dams near Hudson Bay on a route down the west side of the province. The line is known as BiPole3.
Hydro engineers originally proposed a route down the east side of Lake Winnipeg. This instruction by the government is a difficult issue for our engineering colleagues in Hydro.
The ADDITIONAL cost of the west-side route over the east-side route is somewhere around $1.4 -$1.7 billion dollars over 20 years. This figure includes additional construction costs for the longer line, reduction of earnings because of line losses, and additional costs of financing.
A number of retired engineers from Hydro, the University of Manitoba, and other backgrounds feel that the east-side route is much to be preferred because it • is much shorter and involves smaller ongoing line losses
- will be significantly less expensive
- produces higher revenues from the same amount of generated power
- is in an area with lower frequency of tornados and lightning strikes
- impacts a smaller number of land owners and existing infrastructure
- through the combination of decreased hazard and impact, has lower risk of breakdown and higher reliability
- involves essentially similar distance in boreal forest as the West Side route and has broadly similar environmental impact.
- brings economic opportunities to East Side communities.
This consensus is based on the Code of Ethics of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Manitoba (APEGM), and the Engineering Obligation adopted by the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC) in relation to the environment.
Engineers supporting the consensus include Mr. Len Bateman, former CEO of Hydro and Mr. Dave Ennis, former Executive Director of APEGM. Members attending the recent Annual General Meeting will know that the APEGM Council has been asked to consider whether they will undertake advocacy to reverse the decision favouring the west-side route. Significant opposition has developed among the affected farming community in SW Manitoba.
To promote the preferred east-side route, a group known as the BIPole III Coalition has been formed to raise public awareness of the issue and hopefully to lead to a return to the route originally proposed by Hydro engineers. The coalition currently includes retired professional engineers, landowners, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, and the Manitoba and Canadian Aerial Applicators Associations. Contacts have already been made with APEGM. The Chamber of Commerce will also be approached for their support.
I have attached the following files:
- A PowerPoint presentation that outlines the relative merits of the east-side and west-side routes. [download]
- A letter signed by six senior retired engineering professors from the University of Manitoba. [download]
I ask that your organizations, as local sections of major national technical societies, agree to be included as supporting the objectives of the Coalition. As I understand, the support would be in the form of a listing of your organization (not individual members) in promotions of the Coalition’s objectives. There would be no financial commitment, though donations to offset expenses would no doubt be welcomed. What we want is your support for the technical case we will present.
If I may, I ask that you take this request to the Executive Committee of your local section and have them consider it. I hope the Committee’s response will be favourable.
Regards
Jim Graham, PhD DSc FEIC PEng,
Professor Emeritus, University of Manitoba.
jgraham@cc.umanitoba.ca, 204-269-0424
Documents:
- Bipole3: Presentation on the merits for each route [2MB PDF]
- Bipole3: Letter from six senior retired engineering professors from UofM [45KB PDF]
