SaskPower is doing some work near Midale on some of their power transmission infrastructure, wanting to get the lines updated before winter. The work is part of their Rural Rebuild Program, which allocates funds for areas that need attention, such as the stretch south of Midale being worked on.
SaskPower Spokesperson Joel Cherry lays out their expectations for the work ahead.
"The work that's going on near Midale, we'll see about 10 kilometres worth of line replaced. That's about 130 poles in total that we replaced there. The reason for that is the line is aging, it's reached the end of its useful life, and so we're replacing that line in order to improve reliability for all of our customers in the area. That will reduce the amount of unplanned outages that we have."
The work will also change the location of some of those poles, as Cherry says they want to encourage safety in the fields for farmers.
"We're also changing the routing of the line so it's no longer passing through agricultural fields and will instead be along the right-of-way, along the road allowance, so that will help to improve safety as well. Obviously, you know, harvest is ongoing right now, and line contacts are a serious concern. I know we always encourage farmers to take great care while they're doing their work, but when we replace a line like this by moving it into the road allowance, it also helps to increase safety."
The work began three weeks ago, with Cherry estimating a completion sometime in September or October. While the work is ongoing, most people shouldn't expect any additional outages caused by the work.
"For the most part, the work is going to be able to be done without affecting our customers in the area. Once the work is done, we'll have to have a brief planned outage for eight customers to cut the line into our system."
For any more information on upcoming planned outages, Cherry recommends people head to SaskPower.com/outages for more information, as well as take a look at their outage map.