BC Business
With a 22-member team of highly skilled professionals, Richmond-based Lex Engineering Ltd. plays an important role in the private sector electrical power infrastructure of British Columbia. That’s because Lex—one of a few engineering companies that engineers transmission lines as well as high-voltage substations—brings power to wherever it’s needed in the province. Lex serves a variety of sectors including mining, oil and gas, forestry, cement, manufacturing and construction industries with services including studies, design development, power generation and startup support. Clients such as Alterra Power Corp., and more familiar organizations like the Simon Fraser University and Vancouver International Airport rely on Lex to make their expansion requirements possible. Guy Lemieux founded Lex in 1979 on two simple, old-fashioned principles: a commitment to professional integrity and long-term client relationships. The company has become known for successfully tackling unusually challenging projects, one of the more recent being the upgrades to North Vancouver’s Neptune Terminal. For that facility, whose transport of coal and other materials depends on precise scheduling, Lex had to develop a power supply with redundancies for extra reliability. A substation and related components had to be overbuilt due to its proximity between railway lines and roadways, and because potash (one of the materials handled by Neptune) is corrosive to aluminum in wet conditions, a 20’ by 20’ concrete building had to be constructed to house the 69kV substation. The power demands of B.C.’s resource sector are growing and Lex itself is on the threshold of major growth. “We’re expecting to increase our staff to handle the work volumes coming in the near future,” says Lemieux, adding that some of the work will include replacing outdated transformers and upgrading old substations. “A lot of things are happening and we’re well-positioned to deal with the work ahead,” he adds.