Hydro One on Thursday unveiled the preferred route for the St. Thomas Line project running from south London to the planned Centennial Transformer Station, at the Yarmouth Yards industrial park.
The 18-kilometre, 230-kilovolt double-circuit St. Thomas Line will power the PowerCo EV battery gigafactory and support future growth in the region.
The preferred route won’t require any network outages during construction and minimizes the need for complex changes to any existing transmission lines.
Kathleen McCorriston, Hydro One Vice President, Portfolio Management explains the route.
A class environmental assessment was undertaken earlier this year.
Three routes had been identified for the line.
Route 3 follows Old Victoria Road out of London and McCorriston explains why this is the preferred route.
She noted Route 3 had the least environmental impact of the three options and scored highest in four critical considerations including natural environment, socio-economic environment, Indigenous culture, values and land use, and technical and cost.
McCorriston outlined the next steps.
In a release from Hydro One, Elgin-Middlesex-London MPP Rob Flack advised, “Ontario’s advantage in clean electricity has been instrumental in attracting major global investments in EV and battery manufacturing. Transmission projects like this one are critical to making these developments possible.”
Construction will not begin until late next year, with the transmission line in service some time in 2027.
Two open houses will be held where the public can learn more about the project, speak with the project team and share feedback.
November 13th, 3 – 8 p.m.: Belmont Arena & Community Centre 14020 Belmont Road Belmont
November 14th, 3 – 8 p.m.: St. Anne’s Parish Centre 20 Morrison Drive St. Thomas
