SaskPower to begin wood power pole inspections for 2026

SaskPower is inspecting more than 123,000 wood power poles provincewide, checking for damage, decay and needed repairs.

SaskPower is set to inspect over 123,000 wood power poles as part of its annual maintenance program.

Its crews will look for signs of decay, damage and or carpenter ant infestation in the poles, crossarms, anchoring cables and other hardware.

According to a Wednesday news release, inspection and maintenance are extremely cost effective.

“Regular inspection and maintenance of wood power poles can double a pole’s lifespan and provide significant cost savings – maintaining a pole costs less than $65, whereas replacing one costs about $5,000,” SaskPower president and CEO Rupen Pandya in the news release.

Poles that can’t be repaired or reinforced will be marked for replacement. In total, Saskatchewan hosts more than 1.2 million wood power poles.

The inspection schedule is as follows, though some dates may be subject to change:

• Moosomin – Early July to end Aug.
• Davidson – Mid May to early July
• Weyburn – Mid May to early July
• Wynyard – Early Aug. to end Oct.
• Unity – Early July to early Aug.
• Shellbrook – Early June to early July
• Rosthern – Mid May to early June

SaskPower crews will also perform ground grid testing on 9,000 rural overhead transformers and install wildfire protection on 600-900 poles in higher-risk northern areas in hopes of mitigating fire-related outages.

The schedule for overhead transformer testing is as follows (also subject to change):

• Strasbourg – Early June to late June
• Shaunavon – Mid May to early July
• Saskatoon RW – Mid May to mid June
• Assiniboia – Late June to early Aug.
• Lloydminster – Late June to mid July
• Melville – late May to early June

The Crown corporation says crews will stay within SaskPower’s right-of-way as much as possible but may occasionally need to access private property.

It also says no power outages are necessary for this work.

“Wood poles and transformers are the backbone of SaskPower’s distribution system,” Minister Responsible for SaskPower Jeremy Harrison said in the announcement.

“Regular maintenance is a cost-effective way to ensure Saskatchewan’s economy and communities have the safe, reliable power they need to grow and thrive.”