Natural Resources committee  Traditionally, because the energy decisions within provinces are developed on business cases within the province with the available technologies we have today, there's been very little incentive to look east or west. That's precisely why you don't see the intertie capability today.

Natural Resources committee  We have about 1,650 megawatts of conventional coal in the fleet today. Most of that, except for one 300-megawatt unit, is scheduled to retire before 2030. We will have to be making a decision on the next two units—our units four and five at Boundary Dam—by the end of 2019. We're working through that decision process today.

Natural Resources committee  One barrier is certainly around permitting and regulation. A lot of that is federal but some is certainly provincial, on the environmental side of the equation. Once you get into big transmission towers and big lines crossing several hundred kilometres of territory, it becomes a significant issue.

Natural Resources committee  Absolutely. Baseload power is a big requirement for us. Two-thirds of the energy we produce here in Saskatchewan goes to serve the industrial load: potash mining, steel mills, uranium mining, the oil and gas sector, and pipeline capacity as well.

Natural Resources committee  Yes. We have about 900 megawatts of hydro today. We manage our hydro very carefully so that we can store energy throughout the off-peak hours and run our hydro facilities in our peak times during the day. We have one small pilot project now that's looking at wind battery storage, and we're looking at other options for storage pilot projects in the very near future.

Natural Resources committee  I'll start and then let Tim add in here. We have embarked on a grid modernization program, certainly, much like other utilities in Canada. The future of electricity is very exciting, but it's also very transformative for our industry. Distributed generation, whether it's located at the residential premise or is a community project, will certainly have the benefit of having that capacity and those electrons available very close to the load, which would eliminate the need for a lot of transmission and distribution facilities.

Natural Resources committee  Traditionally, energy policy has been the purview of the provinces, as everyone knows, and that's why we have strong north-south interconnections from those “heavily blessed with hydro” provinces: British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec. Where there's an opportunity to provide energy security in Canada, I think that's where the federal government can really play a part.

Natural Resources committee  I think we would prefer to see incentives tied to carbon emissions. As everyone knows, Alberta and Saskatchewan have the heavy lifting to do in moving off fossil fuels. Today we are 75% fossil fuels, and we need to move that down to 50% by 2030. Beyond 2030, we can only imagine a number that's going to get higher and higher in terms of renewable capacity, so finding a way to introduce hydro, in addition to wind and potentially solar, would be a very good mix for our province.

Natural Resources committee  The existing intertie we're looking at right now is to facilitate a contract we currently have with Manitoba Hydro to move 100 megawatts. That contract will not start moving energy until about 2021-22, the early 2020s, so we're busy looking at an upgrade to one of the existing interties.

Natural Resources committee  I believe so, Larry. I'm going to let Tim answer that question. He probably has a little more technical knowledge on this than I have. Tim.

Natural Resources committee  The initial transmission line was built in the late 1980s into northern Saskatchewan to serve the mining load as well as to tap off into distribution substations to feed local communities in that area. To date, we only have one community that's left on diesel. It's a community by the name of Kinoosao.

Natural Resources committee  We've been working for quite some time with Manitoba Hydro. Our relationship goes back many years. Certainly, we're looking at intertie capability along our border. I believe that today we have five interties with Manitoba Hydro. We're looking at potential expansion of some of those interties, depending on how we need to bring the power and where we need to bring the power into the province.

Natural Resources committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and committee members. My name is Mike Marsh. I'm the president and CEO of SaskPower. I'm joined here in Regina today by Mr. Tim Eckel, vice-president of asset management, planning, and sustainability. First of all, thank you for the opportunity to share SaskPower's views on interconnection infrastructure between provinces and building cross-jurisdictional co-operation for a cleaner, more reliable electrical system in Canada.