SaskPower is turning to a United States-based company to up its potential energy capacity.
Yesterday the Crown corporation announced they'd applied to the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) to upgrade their current transmission line from 150 megawatts to 650 megawatts by 2027.
The move would allow SaskPower to continue its shift to more renewable energy while attempting to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent from 2005 by 2030.
"We're changing the way we generate power and importing power and having a flexible source of power that we can bring into the province to support our grid," SaskPower Spokesperson Joel Cherry said. "It will help us to integrate all these new sources and ensure that we have reliable power for all our customers for years to come."
If approved, the line that runs through southeastern Saskatchewan into North Dakota will require some substantial infrastructure improvements.
"This will give us the opportunity to create the increase on the amount of power we can import but then conversely," he said. "You might remember a couple of years ago they had a severe winter storm in the southern United States, in Texas specifically, at that point... We were exporting 175 megawatts, we were pushing the limits of that power line to help out with power there."
A decision on the agreement is expected by the end of spring.
SaskPower is also connected to the grid in Manitoba (350 megawatts) and Alberta (150 megawatts).