Costs of power line route will rise: Hydro CEO

Manitoba Hydrosays the route of anew transmission line down the west side of Lake Manitoba will cost millions more than the government claims.

Previously the government and the utility have said that routing the line, called BiPole III, down the west side of the lake rather then the shorter eastern side would cost about $100 million more in lost power over the next 50 years.

However, the CEO of Manitoba Hydro said Thursday that once the massive Conawapa Dam comes on line with more power, the losses will be higher.

"Whenever this did happen and you did fully load the line, the value of the losses would be much more than $100 million, for sure," Bob Brennan said.

The western route is 50 per cent longer and will cost an estimated $400 million more to build, and further costs would result from the bleeding of power along a transmission line: the longer the line, the more power lost. But the shorter eastern route would cut a swath through pristine boreal forest.

Premier Gary Doer has been continuing to defend his government's decision. "We believe that building a line that is most doable is on the west side," Doer said.

But Conservative Opposition Leader Hugh McFadyen said the Doer government isn't being straightforward about the costs and that there are a lot of unknowns about the project.

"We're waiting to have a chance to question Mr. Brennan and others to try to get more specific answers," McFadyen said.

One energy expert with the University of Manitoba predicts the losses would be three times higher than what the government maintains.

"This extra 56 megawatts would be essentially evaporating as heat and would be given back to the atmosphere," said Ani Gole.

Brennan believes Gole's numbers are too high, butdoesn't have an estimate of what it will all cost, he said.

Figures provided by American hydro marketers Midwest ISO indicate that that amount of power over the 50-year life of the project could add up to$1 billion.

The precise route for the $2-billion line will be determined after an environmental, design and public consultation process that is expected to take several years. Manitoba Hydro hopes the line will be complete in 2017.