By Ruby Pratka
Local Journalism Initiative
A week after the town of Sutton passed a resolution formally calling for Hydro-Québec to consider alternatives for the Brome substation, Hydro-Québec says it is “evaluating” some of the proposals, but others appear technically infeasible.
The Brome substation, which is expected to be built in 2027, will replace the existing Sutton and Knowlton substations and provide electricity to Sutton, Brome Lake and Cowansville. Hydro-Québec intends to build the substation on rural land near the boundaries of Brome Lake, Brome village and Sutton. Earlier this year, the mayors of Sutton, Cowansville and Brome Lake expressed concerns about the proposed location, asking Hydro-Québec to consider alternate locations. “The three municipalities agree that Hydro-Québec’s current proposed site targets a particularly bucolic area where the presence of this substation, much larger than the previous ones, and new towers up to 45 metres high, risk disfiguring a landscape that makes our region so attractive,” according to a statement released in February by the town of Sutton.
On April 2, Sutton councillors passed a resolution asking the utility to look into alternatives to building a new substation, including adding new transformers, batteries or capacitor banks to existing substations; building additional 49-kV or 69-kV lines and increasing investment in solar energy.
Hydro-Québec regional affairs advisor Ève-Marie Jodoin said the utility was looking into the idea of adding new batteries or capacitor banks, although the other solutions proposed by councillors did not seem feasible from Hydro’s perspective.
“When we have space, it’s possible to add new transformers, but even if we have space, it’s not necessarily the best solution in the long term,” she said. “Adding a transformer would need to be part of a scenario that would include other kinds of construction, and we can’t really address that at this stage.” Creating additional 49-kV or 69-kV lines, at a time when Hydro is transitioning from the century-old 49-kV network to a 120-kV network, would “have an even bigger footprint” in terms of construction than the proposed substation.
Solar energy, “cannot replace the scenario we have proposed,” Jodoin said. “Is it something we can do complementarily? Certainly, but not on its own – it takes up a lot of space, we would have to find a place to put [the panels], and it’s hard to have [year-round] in Quebec for climatic reasons.”
Jodoin described Hydro-Québec’s working relationship with municipalities in the area and with the MRC Brome-Missisquoi as “very good,” and said Hydro representatives planned to meet with the Town of Sutton in the coming weeks. She said Hydro intends to finalize the location of the substation and the associated transmission lines by the end of this year. “Hydro-Québec will make that decision … We are the ones responsible for finding the location that will have the least social, economic, environmental and agricultural impact in terms of what we have heard from citizens.”
Sutton Mayor Robert Benoit said in a brief email exchange that no dates had been set for additional meetings between Hydro and the municipality as of this writing.
Jodoin added that citizens who would like to share their concerns and haven’t been able to do so at previous consultations should be able to do so via the Hydro-Québec website, in French or English, at least until the end of April.