Electrical intertie soon to be up and running

The electrical intertie between Saskatchewan and Alberta has been down since Nov. 15 of last year, but will now soon be back in operation.

According to the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO), the McNeill Station began undergoing testing on Wednesday, Oct. 15, ramping up to 15 to 30 megawatts.

The ATCO McNeill Station is the intertie that allows Saskatchewan and Alberta power utilties to exchange power between them. It’s located just on the Alberta side of the border, southwest of Burstall, SK. Google Earth

This power transmission line north of Swift Current eventually leads to the McNeill Station intertie. Photo by Brian Zinchuk

Previously, the AESO had posted on its website last week that “ATCO Electric has updated their proposed repair schedule for the McNeill converter station’s component failure following the update from April 23, 2025.

“ATCO Electric maintains its recommendation that, except under emergency situations, McNeill not be utilized for energy flow until repairs can be completed. As such, the AB-SK intertie ATC will be posted as zero for both import and export during this period.”

The same posting noted Oct. 30 as the expected date for McNeill to return to normal operations.

The Alberta-Saskatchewan intertie is a lot more complex than Saskatchewan’s interties to Manitoba and North Dakota, and similarly for Alberta’s interties to Montana and British Columbia. That’s because Saskatchewan and Alberta are on different interconnects that each span numerous provinces and states, covering large parts of the continent. Within those interconnects, all power generation is precisely synchronized for frequency to match exactly one’s neighbours within the interconnect. There is not a synchronous match between Alberta and Saskatchewan, meaning any power going between the two provinces needs to be converted to DC and then back to AC on the other side.

The extended period of the McNeill Station’s outage has meant that SaskPower has been unable to take part in the Alberta grid. If it had been working, there were many times SaskPower could have received power at zero dollars per megawatt – for free – when Alberta had a surplus of power (in Pipeline Online’s reporting, it’s been found this typically happens when Alberta wind power output is over 50 per cent capacity.)

It also means that on days when Alberta is in a shortfall, usually when wind output flatlines, and the price hits $999.99 per megawatt-hour, SaskPower has been unable to sell power into that market and basically “make bank.”

SaskPower said in an email to Pipeline Online, “Access to the Alberta market increases grid security and improves cost efficiency, and so SaskPower welcomes the intertie’s anticipated return to normal operations.”