Saint John Energy, feds announce $19.5M to modernize city’s electrical grid

Saint John Energy’s grid is getting a $20-million upgrade.

Saint John Energy and the federal government have announced $19.5 million for a project aimed at modernizing the New Brunswick city’s electrical grid.

The utility says the “Grid Forward Saint John” project will help accelerate upgrades to underground equipment, enhance outage management capabilities, and introduce “self-healing” grid technology that can detect issues, isolate problems and restore service faster.

Natural Resources Canada and Saint John Energy are each pitching in $9.75 million for the project.

“As demand grows and more customers make the switch to electric technologies, we need to ensure the grid is ready to support it,” said Saint John Energy CEO Ryan Mitchell in a news release Friday.

“Grid Forward Saint John allows us to move forward sooner and more efficiently on upgrades that are critical to our system.”

Work on Grid Forward Saint John will begin this year and continue over the next several years. The utility says it will phase the projects to minimize disruptions to customers.

Mitchell says Saint John has more underground infrastructure than the balance of the rest of Atlantic Canada. Around 20 kilometres of underground infrastructure will be renewed as part of the work around the city, but the bulk of upgrades will occur in the city’s uptown.

The president and CEO also says the implementation of smart switches within the system will give customers even more reliable energy.

“We do not have to deploy crews to manually operate the switch; they can be done from the control room here,” Mitchell said during Friday’s announcement in Saint John. “The other aspect of the project is, we’re overlaying that with fault detection, which means it can happen automatically without any human intervention. Dramatically reduces the downtime associated with outages, whatever may potentially have caused them.”

According to Atlantica Centre for Energy President Michelle Robichaud, the grid upgrade will help power more reliable and affordable energy rates for the city.

For a smaller utility based on a national scale, Robichaud says Saint John Energy is “punching above their weight” with investment upgrades like this one.

“If we think about the electricity grid, so take a step back, it’s really the pulse of everything that happens,” Robichaud said. “It powers industry, it heats your home, it makes sure that when the light goes on the light actually goes on. Starting there is really, really important to recognize that when the whole system is stronger and certainly more modern, everything just works better.”

She also says the federal investment in the project sends a strong signal from Ottawa on the importance of modern, reliable electricity systems to Canada’s economic future. She also noted how Atlantic Canada specifically has an important role to play in the country’s overall energy future.

Officials say the work will support local jobs and contractors and contribute to economic activity in the Saint John region.

“Grid Forward Saint John is about making sure our system is ready for what’s next,” Mitchell said. “These upgrades will help us improve reliability, reduce the impact of outages and build a stronger, more responsive grid for the future, while keeping affordability front and centre for our customers.”

The utility says the project also supports its goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions.

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