Upgrades along Enbridge's natural gas transmission system from the B.C. Peace to the Lower Mainland will include work at three compressor stations in the Fraser-Fort George Regional District.
In a presentation to directors during their May meeting, Enbridge community and indigenous engagement lead Rikki Beaudet said new state-of-the-art compressors and new gas coolers will be installed at the stations near Hixon, Summit Lake and McLeod Lake.
The work amounts to a change of plans, directors were told. The company had originally looked at adding loops of 42-inch pipe to the system to increase capacity but have since reconsidered.
"We realized that we can actually gain the amount of capacity increase that we were looking at last year with the looping just by increasing the compressor stations," Beaudet said.
Construction at Summit Lake and McLeod Lake will run from spring 2019 to fall 2020 and spring 2019 to summer 2021 at Hixon where the work will also include replacement of impeller wheels in two of the stations at the site.
"The new units will be modern, state-of-the-art, they'll adhere to all the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission guidelines and make use of noise reduction features," Beaudet said. "They'll also make use of low-emission technology and will result in an overall net reduction in nitrogen oxide emissions."
An open house will be held in Hixon on June 5. With the change in the scope of the work, an open house previously scheduled for Salmon Valley will not be held but there will be a mail out to residents in the area to let them know what is in store for the station at Summit Lake.
The B.C. Pipeline runs from Fort Nelson to the border at Huntingdon-Sumas. It transports about 60 per cent of the natural gas produced in British Columbia and supplies about 50 per cent of demand for the fuel in in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
The work will be carried out on the line's Transmission South (T-South) system.
Beaudet said work on the line in the Pine Pass is close to finished.
"We had some crossover assembly upgrades as well as an aerial crossing at the Pine River," Beaudet said. "That work is wrapping up this year, so it is basically complete and it will be completed this year.
Enbridge merged with Spectra Energy in February 2017 to become the larger energy infrastructure company in North America.
