AESO Report Identifed East/West TUC as Preferred Routes

A 2008 report from the AESO (entitled Alberta's Industrial Heartland Bulk Transmission Development, released May 30, 2008) identifies the east TUC (Plan IIIB) and west TUC (Plan IB) as the preferred routes for the Heartland Transmission Project:

"The AESO has determined that Plan IIIB utilizing a double circuit 500/240 kV… is the preferred course of development to meet the needs identified for the Heartland region. However, the AESO has also determined that Plan IB utilizing a double circuit 500 kV line would also be acceptable."

The document provides a complete evaluation and comparison based on load supply adequacy, transfer capability, land impact, operational reliability, flexibility, and cost for the six plans originally proposed by AESO, including the four routes currently proposed by Heartland. This report clearly identifies the West TUC as an alternate route; specifically, that "the AESO does not believe that the advantages of Plan IIIB over Plan IB are sufficient to justify excluding Plan IB from further consideration".

We encourage you to read this document, which can be downloaded from AESO's website at this link: https://www.aeso.ca/downloads/S0712_Heartland_Dev_Plan.pdf.