Enmax begins construction on downtown Calgary substation – Calgary

A piece of Calgary’s energy history is in its final days and construction on its replacement is underway.

Enmax Power, owned by the city, announced on Monday that it has acquired the new site for the new substation no. 1 broke ground – the largest infrastructure project the utility has undertaken in its history.

The project recently broke ground at the corner of 9 Avenue and 7 Street SW

It replaces a century-old substation that supplies nearly half of the city’s downtown electricity needs.

“That’s almost 20,000 customers. We support high residential commercial customers, data centers and even a downtown healthcare center from this substation,” Enmax Power CEO Jana Mosley told Global News.

“This is quite a complex project and our team has been planning this project for several years now. We are going through a regulatory process to get it approved by the Alberta Utilities Commission.”

Enmax was able to get on site a little earlier than expected when Knoxville’s Tavern closed operations earlier this year.

Construction on the $200 million project is expected to be completed in spring 2025.

“It’s complicated from an infrastructure perspective, carrying six different transmission lines and 24 different distribution lines that run mostly underground. However, through proper planning and sequencing of planned outages, we do not expect to see any outage risk to any of our customers through the construction of the project,” said Mosley.

Substation no. 1 opened in 1912 as Calgary’s original substation, powering early street lights and the streetcar track system.

“(It) has played a pivotal role in the history of our city and this replacement ensures that it will play an equally important role in our future,” said Kurtis Hildebrandt, Enmax Power’s director of regulatory reporting and strategy and student of the city’s history of electricity said.

Enmax will work with the City of Calgary to limit disruptions, including minimizing lane closures or off-peak pedestrian work. Mosley expected there would be some rerouting of walkways during construction.

“We certainly understand that this may cause some inconvenience. I just want to thank people in advance for their understanding as we work to deliver on our commitment to providing safe and reliable service to all Calgarians.”

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