The rapid growth in southeast Manitoba is forcing Manitoba Hydro to add another sub-station in the Steinbach area.

According to Manitoba Hydro, electricity demand in southeastern Manitoba has grown at over twice the provincial average over the past decade. It is now necessary for Manitoba Hydro to build a 230-66-kilovolt electrical station.

"People expect reliable service and we intend to maintain that," says Bruce Owen, Media Relations Officer. "A new sub-station will allow us to bring more reliable power to not only homes but also the new businesses that are coming."

Manitoba Hydro says the electrical station will consist of transformers that will step down electricity to then distribute for local use. It will connect to the St.Vital Transmission Complex and will deliver electricity through distribution lines that will leave the station and follow existing roads to nearby stations to then distribute to local users. The station will be approximately 150 square metres in size and will be fenced for public safety.

Owen says it will be called Stony Brook Station. The goal is to have it in service in 2020. Following that, an aging station northwest of Steinbach will be decommissioned.

Owen notes the plan is to build Stony Brook Station on land owned by Manitoba Hydro. This location is along Highway 52, northwest of Kleefeld.

Anyone interested in learning more about this project is invited to attend a drop-in open house on July 12th from Noon to 7 pm at Kleefeld Recreation Centre.

Owen says there are already three stations in the Steinbach area. By adding Stony Brook Station it will lessen the load of the other stations.

"By lessening that load, it will increase reliability," he says. "So there won't be those voltage fluctuations that some people may see."