North of Dryden Draft Reference Integrated Regional Resource Plan

2013/08/16

Page 171

230 kV Line from Marathon TS to Ring of Fire

Given the potential for a new all season road to serve the Ring of Fire mining development area from around Nakina, this option was developed to leverage the availability of the all season road assuming they can share a common right of way from Nakina. This Ring of Fire transmission option does not require supply from Pickle Lake or the Dryden area and therefore can be considered independently of transmission options for the Pickle Lake area. The existing transmission supply serving the Long Lac\Nakina area is the single circuit 115 kV line A4L, which has insufficient capability to serve the forecast load growth of the Ring of Fire subsystem. Therefore, a new transmission line from Marathon TS would be required for this option. This option is to build a new 230 kV single circuit line from Marathon TS to a new 230 kV station at the Ring of Fire mining development area.

To serve Ring of Fire subsystem load (mining and remote communities), a new 230/115 kV transformer station near Marten Falls First Nation would serve the three remote communities nearby (Neskantaga FN, Eabametoong FN and Marten Falls FN). A 230/115 kV transformer station at the Ring of Fire mining development area would supply the mines. To serve Webequie and Nibinamik First Nations, a new 115 kV line from the new TS at the Ring of Fire would run to a new 115 kV TS around Webequie where it would terminate. Webequie and Nibinamik First Nations would be served via distribution lines from this new TS.

This line may also serve load growth in the Long Lac/Nakina area if required by installing a 230/115 kV transmission station in the Long Lac/Nakina area. A diagram of this option is provided in Figure 41 below.


The LMC of the Ring of Fire subsystem for this option is 77 MW. This includes 7 MW for the communities on the line as well as 70 MW at the Ring of Fire.

A summary of the cost for this option can be found in Table 61 below.