Elk Valley Resources Electrification Project

Here in B.C., about 98% of the power we generate comes from clean or renewable resources, mostly powered by water. This makes us a leader in clean electricity generation in western North America.

We're committed to working with industrial customers who want to use our clean electricity to power their operations and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Electrification is a key pathway to achieving the CleanBC emission reduction targets – and we continue to see significant interest from the residential, commercial, transportation and industrial sectors in making the switch from using fossil fuels to clean electricity.

EVR has committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 33% by 2030 and to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. EVR estimates this will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 700kTCO2e a year by 2050. This is the equivalent of taking 155,000 gas-powered passenger vehicles off the road each year.

Beginning in 2027, EVR is planning to deploy battery electric haul trucks and electrify its processing equipment. As part of this switch to clean energy, electricity usage at EVR's Elk Valley mines will increase significantly.

To power this transition, we need to upgrade our infrastructure to meet this increased demand at EVR's Elk Valley mines.

We're working with EVR to consider options to connect the Elk Valley mining operations to our existing transmission line outside Sparwood. These options don't connect to the existing transmission line currently running between Sparwood and Elkford.

We're studying four corridor options for the transmission line route between the new Alexander Creek Substation east of Sparwood and EVR's Fording River operations north of Elkford.

These corridors generally follow existing disturbances on the landscape: the highway, an existing transmission line, the railway, and a forest service road.

Routing the new transmission line through these corridors will reduce impacts on fish and wildlife habitat, minimize new habitat fragmentation, and allow us to use existing access roads, as compared to routing on undisturbed land.

When we're considering the transmission line route, we'll work to minimize impacts where possible, including environmental and private property impacts.

We're consulting local Indigenous Nations and asking for input from local and regional government and key stakeholders on the transmission line route through the four corridor options.

Providing access to clean, renewable electricity will avoid greenhouse gas emissions, which supports the CleanBC climate targets.

Building a new transmission line to deliver power to EVR's mines will reduce the load on the line that delivers power to our residential and commercial customers in Sparwood and Elkford.

The project is expected to provide economic and social benefits for local Indigenous communities and others living, working and doing business in the region through construction jobs, apprenticeships and other training, employment and procurement opportunities.

Our environmental principles help guide our approach to environmental risk. These principles include:

• Working with Indigenous groups, stakeholders and the public on delivering our commitment to environmental protection.
• Making environmentally informed and transparent business decisions that factor in minimizing habitat loss and fragmentation, achieving environmental benefits, and supporting climate actions and targets.
• Complying with all applicable requirements in environmental legislation.

We're still early in the planning process and there's more work to do to determine environmental impacts.

When we select a transmission line route, there are several key environmental considerations we'll assess:

• Reducing habitat fragmentation.
• Incorporating environmental and archaeological criteria from local Indigenous Nations.
• Avoiding impacts to sensitive habitat and species at risk.

The project will include vegetation removal, new access roads and excavation works which all have the potential to impact habitat. Our early desktop studies show the project could interact with old-growth forest, riparian and wetland habitat, and critical white bark pine habitat. The project could also spread invasive species, and disturb habitat for at-risk species including western toad, American badger, grizzly bear, various bat species and bank swallows. It may also impact ungulate winter range.

Once we select a leading route option, we'll carry out further studies to define these impacts and create mitigation and management plans.

The project is currently in its study stage. Our focus is on identifying the best location for the new transmission line and associated infrastructure. We expect to select a leading route option in summer 2024.

The next stages will study the leading route option in more detail. The project will still need to undergo environmental processes, property acquisition, planning design, and regulatory approvals before construction can start. Once we select a leading route option, we'll carry out further studies to improve our understanding of that option.

We'll provide more information on the schedule as our plans move ahead.