Fort McMurray West Transmission Project

The project will include approximately 500 km of single circuit transmission line between Edmonton and the Fort McMurray region including

• a 500 kV AC single circuit transmission line, approximately 100 km in length, running from a new substation in the Thickwood Hills area 25 km west of Fort McMurray, to the existing Livock 939S substation
• a 500 kV AC single circuit transmission line approximately 400 km in length running from the existing Livock 939S substation to the approved Sunnybrook 510S substation

On December 18, 2014, it was announced that Alberta PowerLine Limited Partnership—a partnership between Alberta-based Canadian Utilities Limited (an ATCO company) and U.S.-based Quanta Capital Solutions, Inc.—was awarded the contract for the project by the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO).

The project was approved by the Alberta Utilities Commission on February 10, 2017, after hearing from 11 different groups, including landowners and indigenous groups, in a public hearing between October 12 and November 10, 2016.

To finance the project, on October 2, 2017, Alberta PowerLine closed the issuance of an aggregate of C$1,384,678,000 of senior bonds, representing the largest public-private partnership financing ever completed in Canada. The bonds were underwritten by CIBC World Markets Inc. and RBC Dominion Securities Inc.

The line was energized in March 2019.

Further information can be found on Marketwired's website and on the AESO's project page.