It’s an issue West Kelowna council has been pressing the province on for the past 16 years - the installation of a redundant hydro transmission line.
Vandalism to the only BC Hydro line serving the city, and Peachland, forced an emergency power outage on May 31 to repair the damage, affecting approximately 26,000 customers.
READ MORE: Power restored to BC Hydro customers in West Kelowna, Peachland after planned outage
“This event really highlights the fact that we only have one line,” said Paul Gipps, West Kelowna CAO. “We have an update coming this summer from BC Hydro, they’ll be coming to an open council meeting.”
Ever since West Kelowna was incorporated as a city in 2007, successive councils have met with BC Hydro officials as well as ministers responsible for the crown corporation, seeking a commitment to have the second line built.
“We are putting in another request to meet with the minister (Josie Osborne) and BC Hydro together when we are at the Union of BC Municipalities convention in September in Vancouver,” added Gipps.
He noted it’s also a top priority for West Kelowna residents.
“It’s on our strategic priorities, and people comment that they’re happy it’s on there.”
The city is coordinating its efforts with Peachland and Westbank First Nation as well.
“It’s one of the conversations that comes up that we can work together to leverage because it’s the westside communities that are impacted.”
BC Hydro has been working on options for a second line, and after online public engagement, identified several possible alternatives in March 2022.
READ MORE: BC Hydro draws closer to second power line for West Kelowna and area customers
One of those options is connecting to the Nicola Substation, about 70 kilometres northwest of West Kelowna.
“Council’s last discussion was that it doesn’t make sense to bring it through the forest from Merritt when we’ve been exposed a number of times to wildfires,” said Gipps.
He added the city is waiting for more details from BC Hydro on the other options, all of which involve a transmission line across Okanagan Lake.
“Where specifically they cross or how they get it here, I don’t think we’ve debated that at all. It’s more about when’s it going to happen, can we get it going and let’s keep our community informed.”
Dave Cooper with BC Hydro community relations told Capital News that insulators on the main transmission line (off Highway 97C) were damaged or destroyed, and were discovered during a routine flyover.
“We did file a police report so we’ll leave the investigation to the RCMP to do, our focus was getting the restoration work done as quickly as we could.”
READ MORE: Zipline to stay at Gyro Beach after Kelowna mom breaks her neck
@GaryBarnes109
gary.barnes@kelownacapnews.com
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