{"id":591572,"date":"2026-04-09T02:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T02:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/591572\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T02:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T02:40:09","slug":"puc-starting-construction-on-190m-transmission-project-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/591572\/","title":{"rendered":"PUC starting construction on $190M transmission project this year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Information on new transmission line and transformer station that will power Algoma Steel’s electric arc furnace project was shared today with the public<\/p>\n

Construction of a new, multi-million dollar transmission line and station in the city\u2019s west end is expected to begin as early as this spring.<\/p>\n

PUC Transmission and Algoma Steel hosted an open house at the Northern Community Centre earlier today to provide the public\u00a0with information on its current projects \u2014 namely, Algoma\u2019s transition to electric arc furnace steelmaking and the massive infrastructure projects by PUC that will support it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some of the site preparation for its 230-kilovolt transmission line and station has been completed so far, with construction on the $190-million project anticipated to begin during the second quarter of this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think people recognize this is a really positive thing for the community,\u201d said Katie Elliott, director enterprise strategy for PUC.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a local solution, a local utility partnering with our partners to solve some big issues in the community around power.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re really proud to be doing that, and I think residents recognize that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once completed, the transmission line will run from Hydro One\u2019s transformer station on Third Line East to a new PUC transformer station that will be located just west of Algoma Steel.<\/p>\n

PUC Transmission says the line will provide about 300 megawatts of power to the EAF project \u2014 allowing Algoma Steel to double its steelmaking capacity.<\/p>\n

\"2026-04-08-puctransmissionlinemapjh\"
\nA map showing the future location of a new transmission line and transformer station that will be constructed by PUC Transmission in order to power Algoma Steel’s electric arc furnace project. PUC website <\/p>\n

Elliott says 10 permanent jobs will be created at PUC as a result of the project, including in system control, engineering and administrative roles.<\/p>\n

Roughly 50 temporary jobs have been created for the pre-construction phase of the project to date.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMoving forward into the actual construction phase there’ll be dozens more temporary jobs created in the community, which is a really big plus right now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

While some residents told SooToday they were satisfied overall with the information presented by PUC during the open house, others expressed concerns with flickering lights in their homes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Elliott referred to a recent news release issued by PUC<\/a>, while reiterating that the issue with flickering lights is not linked to its local distribution system.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although reporters were invited to the open house, Elliott said questions related to a PUC\u00a0study on flickering lights and questions about the actual capacity of the Sault Smart Grid should be sent\u00a0via email.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We have been responsive to our customers,” Elliott\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

“Of course, we have complaints, so we are being responsive and\u00a0looked into it.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another resident who lives alongside the route for the transmission line told SooToday that he\u2019s \u201cnot all for\u201d the construction project.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’ll reduce the value of our home, but I’m not 100 per cent sure yet,\u201d said the man, who did not want to be named because of his job.\u00a0<\/p>\n

PUC anticipates that construction on the transmission line and transformer station will be completed by the second quarter of 2028.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will be holding additional open houses with community members \u2014 specifically ones that are closer to the route \u2014 so we can provide more updates on construction,\u201d Elliott said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Information on new transmission line and transformer station that will power Algoma Steel’s electric arc furnace project was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48,225135],"class_list":{"0":"post-591572","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-constructionopen-housealgoma-steeltransmission-lineelectric-arc-furnacepuc-transmission"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}