WORK CONTINUES on the transmission lines and substation for the Canadian Hydro Developers Melanchton Wind Project. Photos/WES KELLER Within three months, the first-phase wind turbines of the Canadian Hydro Developers Melancthon Wind Project will be sending 34.5 kilovolts down the 10th Line of Amaranth.

From there, the 34.5 kv will be converted to 230 kv at the nearly complete substation south of Amaranth’s 15 Sideroad and 10th Line for transmission to the Hydro One grid.

Last week, Canadian Hydro crews were stringing eight cables on the tall standards already lining the 10th line. When completed, the standards — about 25 metres apart — will carry 12 wires, 10 of which would be dedicated to Canadian Hydro. Nine

SPORTS of those will carry power, and the 10th is for communications between the turbines and the substation.

Ian Cowan, the project’s environmental officer, said two of the 12 wires are for Hydro One: a single-phase line to replace the existing Hydro One wire, plus a neutral line.

Mr. Cowan said a similar series of lines would be built along a second concession road in Amaranth. This second series would carry 69 kv, again to be converted to 230 kv for access to the Hydro One grid at the substation.

The current construction appears massive, but its location off the 10th Line makes it unobtrusive. Mr. Cowan said it wouldn’t be expanded from its Phase 1 footprint, but would be modified to handle the added load when the second, 88-turbine phase of construction has been completed.

“There might be some new machinery, but (the substation) won’t be any larger,” he said in an interview Tuesday.

When both phases of turbine construction have been completed, the local project is touted to have the potential of producing 350 megawatts (MW) of electrical energy, making it something of a worldclass venture.

Each of the turbines is said to have the capacity to produce 1.5 MW of power. If so, various estimates indicate that fewer than 20 turbines could produce enough energy to serve every home in Dufferin County.

Canadian Hydro is a publicly traded company, listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.