The northern watershed of the easternmost Saint Lawrence River has been a sight of many large hydroelectric projects for the better part of a century. Growing demand and the closure of nuclear plants is changing the needs for electrical transmission routes and this new 200 mile 735 KV line is part of the reorganizing of power flow in eastern Canada.

With the closure of two nuclear generating stations that were closer to demand centers than most hydroelectric generating stations additional transmission grid is required. This line carries 735KV electrical supply from the power stations on the Manicouagan River along a 200-mile path to the Saguenay grid center.

The growing demand from electronification of cars as well as home heating is driving increased consumption. This in turn calls for greater generation capacity, transmission capacity and reliability.

Hot-dip galvanizing has a long and commendable history in Canadian electrical grids and the use of HDG to protect these towers is mostly a forgone conclusion. What is no longer a forgone conclusion however is if this and future projects would be fabricated locally or by overseas suppliers. This puts enormous pressure on Canadian fabricators and galvanizers to compete with overseas suppliers who do not have the same cost constraints as relates to labor costs and safety or environmental standards.

Canadian galvanizers have faced this challenge with a focus on automation as well as reliability and quality optimization. The now several modern automated galvanizing plants in Eastern and Central Canada are succeeding in this challenge by bringing lower direct costs, higher capacity and more consistent quality to bear in the market while also bringing environmental stewardship to new levels. Concurrently, computerized operations control is also raising the standard for product control and identification throughout the process.

Large scale projects like this one attract overseas bidding but the combination of higher productivity and better quality and product management allowed domestic suppliers to bring greater overall value to the power utility insuring local supply a seat at the table for all future projects.