Hydro Ottawa/Hydro One/Hydro Québec

[rocketphish]

Preview: A Virtual Tour of Chaudière Falls

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Cross-post:

Originally Posted by rocketphish

Hydro Ottawa looking at burying more power lines after latest storm
Strategic burials could help reroute power, says CEO

Matthew Kupfer · CBC News
Posted: Nov 17, 2022 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: 9 hours ago



A report from Hydro Ottawa says the devastating windstorm earlier this year has pushed the organization to prioritize burying some hydro lines and improving communication with customers during "large-scale weather events."

The report from the local utility reflected on and reviewed the impact of the May 21 derecho that took out more than 500 hydro poles and left thousands of customers without power for days.

In the past, it's warned about the costs of burying hydro lines — both upfront and in terms of maintenance — but the report says burying lines in strategic locations could help avoid some larger disruptions.

"It's expensive, but we expect these storms, hopefully not derechos … [to] become more and more frequent and more and more severe. It's our job to plan for that." said Bryce Conrad, president and CEO of Hydro Ottawa.

Conrad said lines could be buried along north-south corridors such as Woodroffe Avenue, Merivale Road or Greenbank Road — all damaged in the 2018 tornadoes and last May's powerful wind storm — so power could be rerouted in the event of another widespread outage.

Burying lines across the city "would make no sense" given the cost, he said. Hydro Ottawa has previously estimated servicing underground lines costs 11 times more than overhead wires, and burying all the lines in its territory would take 90 years and $10 billion.

"Just because the infrastructure is buried doesn't mean it's perfect nor is it protected," Conrad said.

The prospect of burying lines will be considered on a case-by-case basis as the city does other road work, said Conrad, while other efforts to protect infrastructure, such as using composite material poles along some corridors, will help.

Trying to protect against 190 km/h winds would be cost-prohibitive, he added.

"We're not building to meet the next derecho. We're building to meet the next severe weather events, which can be up to and including 135-145 [km/h] winds," he said.

Conrad said he's seeing the real effects of climate change in the service area with more severe weather events.

The report updated the estimated cost of this storm's recovery to $23.8 million, which is less than the estimated $30 million cost included in a City of Ottawa memo released in September.

Conrad said that will affect the municipally-owned company's bottom line and reduce the dividend paid out to the city by up to $3.6 million, unless the province follows through on promised recovery funding.

In an interview with CBC News Monday, Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethanfalvy said talks about the funding were still underway.

The derecho itself took 15 minutes to wreak havoc on Hydro Ottawa's infrastructure, but it took days to understand its scope. Conrad said his initial report of 225 poles needing repair eventually soared to 540.

While more than half of Hydro Ottawa customers had power restored within 48 hours, some were left waiting weeks. Conrad did point to a success of the response effort: a lack of workplace injuries among crews working long hours to restore power.



The report's section on improving communication and planning focused on a need to prepare for larger and longer-lasting service disruptions — a process that involves looking at utilities that regularly deal with severe weather "such as hurricanes."

Conrad said Hydro Ottawa will launch a text message-based system for customers to report and receive updates on outages.

He said the failure of the outage map during the derecho will also be addressed. He said a new and improved outage map is in the works so it can provide useful information to customers and the strategic operations team during a large-scale event.

The city's emergency broadcast system could have been used more effectively during the May 2022 response, he added.

With files from Omar Dabaghi-Pacheco

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/hydro-ottawa-storm-derecho-report-lines-towers-1.6653450

[rocketphish]

Extreme weather events and growing demand driving planned 'modernization' of Hydro One's Merivale transformer station
Work is projected to start in the spring of 2023 with final completion in 2028

Gord Holder • Postmedia
Nov 25, 2022 • 5 hours ago • 4 minute read



Spectacular damage to the Merivale transformer station from the 2018 tornadoes plus a need to better protect it against other extreme weather events are key considerations in a proposed modernization project — but so, too, are population growth and increased demand for electricity.

The station adjacent to Merivale Road is one of two facilities belonging to provincial power utility Hydro One that supplies about 60 per cent of Ottawa’s electricity. The other is near Hawthorne Road.

Hydro Ottawa, owned by the City of Ottawa, feeds the power it gets from Hydro One into its network along with what it receives from an affiliated generating company, Portage Power — which has enough capacity to power 107,000 homes annually, plus three connected Madawaska River hydroelectric generating stations and one on the Ottawa River whose contributions peak during spring due to their run-of-river generating systems.

The 2018 tornadoes caused a reported $10 million in damage to the Merivale station, and repairs took 12 weeks.

The Merivale project includes removing an aging transformer — one of two currently on site — installing two new transformers, realigning transmission lines, replacing the current control building with a new structure, building a new emergency access road and a 1.7-kilometre temporary bypass line along Cedarview Road to ensure continued power supply during construction, and “select vegetation removal.”

“Ottawa’s growing, so we’re replacing a lot of the aging infrastructure at the station to increase capacity so that more customers can come online,” says Daniel Levitan, vice president of stakeholder relations for the provincial utility company.

“It’s also important that our stations are further hardened against that type of weather that we’ve seen over the past few years. The modernization of our stations is also something that’s going to help future-proof against what we have seen from climate change, so far.”

Asked how well-protected the electrical system feeding Ottawa is now compared to 2018, or further back to the Ice Storm in 1998, Levitan says Hydro One has learned from those events as well as the derecho wind storm that cut a swath of devastation and killed at least five people in the capital region in May.

“It’s an important point,” Levitan says. “Weather patterns are changing, and we just have to make sure that we stay ahead of that with a project like this as well as repairs and the like.”

It was plans for “vegetation removal” as part of the project that drew Tom Badenoch to a public information session earlier this month.

“I’m going to be affected by the new construction that’s going in and the construction activities, and I wanted a better understanding of what the intentions were,” said Badenoch, one of several dozen area residents who attended the session in an airport-area hotel conference room Nov. 15.

“I think further down, I’m going to want to see their detailed plans for the remediation of the trees they take down for some of the green areas.”

The proposed changes would also expand the station’s footprint within its existing property. Two other Nepean residents, Lindsay and Steve Laroche, took note of that as well as the project’s extended timeline, with new equipment coming online in 2026, followed by reconfiguration of existing infrastructure, site clean-up and removal of the temporary bypass line into 2028.

“It’s a big disruption in our community, and it’s going to be loud and noisy,” Lindsay Laroche said.

“In the long run, it will be interesting to see if we stay there for the entire duration,” Steve Laroche said.

“What’s the end game here? What is it going to look like? How’s it going to impact our community in terms of the visual aspect of it? And what are they going to do once they do have to remove a lot of the trees and vegetation? Are they going to add more? Are they going to replant?”

The final cost of the Merivale project isn’t yet known. Levitan says some engineering work and other processes are yet to be completed, but Hydro One did include this work in the capital investment section of its 2021 “Joint Rate Application” to the Ontario Energy Board, which has yet to issue a decision.

“The most efficient way to spend those dollars is to try and harden a system against an event rather than to repair it after one,” Levitan says.

A July 2021 media release from Hydro One said modernizing the Hawthorne Transformer Station had cost $85 million. That project included the replacement of five transformers and 15 breakers along with protection and control upgrades.

The Nov. 15 public session was part of a Class Environmental Assessment screening process, with results to be submitted in December for review by the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks. Another open house featuring pre-construction updates is expected in early 2023, with work projected to start next spring.

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...-hydro-ones-merivale-transformer-station

[rocketphish]

Hydro One's $245-million expansion of Merivale Transmission Station to start this spring
As the population of Ottawa increases and as the city continues to expand, more power is needed to meet the growing demand, Spencer added.

Adamo Marinelli, Special to the Citizen
Published Mar 04, 2023 • Last updated 3 hours ago • 3 minute read



An expansion project at Hydro One’s Merivale Transmission Station — one of two stations in Ottawa that provide nearly 60 per cent of the city’s total electricity — is on pace to start this spring.

The long-term goal is to increase the station’s capacity and to make its infrastructure more resilient to climate change and weather damage.

Hydro One’s expansion project will include construction of a new controls building, new protection measures for equipment and two new 230-kilovolt transformers. One new unit will replace an existing transformer, while the other will become the site’s third transformer, increasing the amount of power it can handle.

Andrew Spencer, the utility’s vice-president of transmissions and stations, said Friday the total cost of the project was estimated at $245 million. Local consumers should not expect to see large increases in their hydro bill because of the upgrades since they are being paid for by all Ontario customers, not just those in Ottawa.

“So, on an average consumers’ bill, it’ll be a negligible (price increase) in the context of all of the costs that go into operating the system,” Spencer said.

The expansion has been in the works for several years. Most of the construction will be done in 2024 and 2025, but the work is expected to continue until 2028.

“(Power) capacity of existing infrastructure won’t decrease during construction, but when the project’s finished we’ll certainly see an increase,” Spencer said.

“We take the opportunity to upgrade to current standards, taking into account more resilient infrastructure, dealing and mitigating with climate change that we all experience on a seemingly increasing basis. We’re cognizant of the choices we make and being mindful of preparedness for the future.”

Several transmission towers will be moved to make the expansion possible and Hydro Ottawa will be moving power wires underground to make them more resilient and to limit possible damage from fallen trees or freezing winter temperatures, Spencer said.

Hydro One is trying to be sensitive to the impact of the station expansion on neighbouring communities, Spencer said.

There will be an open house at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Tanglewood Park Community Centre at 30 Woodfield Dr.

At a previous open house in November, residents raised questions about plans for vegetation removal, disruptions in the neighbourhood related to construction work and local access roads.

“There had been the option of a road to Nestow Drive, but, after closely consulting with the community, they made adjustments to the plan to address the locals’ concerns, and I’m very grateful they did,” Spencer said.

Knoxdale-Merivale Coun. Sean Devine, who was also present for a tour of the station Friday, said he’d have the same concerns about the project’s impact if he lived in the neighbourhood.

“But the residents are going to be really happy to hear the impact in their community will not be as serious as they had feared because Hydro One did an excellent job consulting with the community and adjusting their plans to address the neighbours’ concerns,” Devine said.

As the population of Ottawa increases and as the city continues to expand, more power is needed to meet the growing demand, Spencer added.

One of the other changes to the project has been a decision to move newer equipment inside so it’s more resilient against extreme weather and the impacts of climate change.

The Merivale Station took a direct, devastating hit from a tornado in September 2018, causing millions of dollars in damage. Clean-up and restoration of the infrastructure took three to four months.

“Moving the equipment inside will help mitigate damages caused by future storms,” Spencer said.

Devine said residents in Ward 9 had been the most hard-hit by power outages during weather events.

“When residents in Ward 9 face the next cataclysmic weather event, I hope they can be reassured that these kinds of investments will protect against those kinds of power outages,” he said.

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...ransmission-station-to-start-this-spring

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Province of Québec has abandoned the Outaouais years ago when it comes to health care, education, housing, culture... Now it seems Hydro-Quebec is abandoning the Outaouais as well. Over the summer, I've read countless of stories about the rural areas and villages with serious outage problems. When there's a storm, almost everyone on the Ontario side gets reconnected, and Outaouais drags behind for days.

Anyway, Hydro-Québec spoke to Council and told them point blank not to depend on them and find alternative sources of energy. Projects are being canceled because Hydro doesn't want to provide the necessary power.

I know there's one big project (super computers for krypto currency?) that's been on hold for years waiting for Hydro's response.

Hydro-Québec pourrait retarder des projets résidentiels à Gatineau en raison d’un manque d’électricité

Par Mathieu Bélanger, Le Droit
26 septembre 2023

Est-ce qu’Hydro-Québec a suffisamment d’électricité pour soutenir le développement de Gatineau, même résidentiel? Au terme d’une visite de représentants de la société d’État qui s’est échelonnée sur deux jours dans les bureaux de la Ville, la question se pose. Pour l’instant, ça va, assure-t-on, mais des projets à venir pourraient être retardés afin de laisser le temps à Hydro d’augmenter sa capacité de distribution dans la région.

Hydro-Québec a le devoir de desservir tous les foyers québécois, c’est dans la loi. Mais que des enjeux de capacité puissent justifier des délais dans le respect de cette obligation, tel qu’évoqué devant le conseil municipal de Gatineau, mardi, par un haut dirigeant d’Hydro, est tout nouveau dans le discours public de la société d’État.

La présentation faite par Éric Bernier, directeur clientèles affaires et solution énergétiques chez Hydro-Québec, sur la transition énergétique et les avantages de la biénergie avait auparavant été offerte à Montréal, Québec, et dans quelques autres municipalités près de la métropole. Chaque fois, c’était en privé et à l’intention de fonctionnaires. Elle a été faite en public et devant des élus pour la première fois à Gatineau, confirme Caroline Milliard, responsable des communications pour Hydro-Québec. M. Bernier a par la suite longuement répondu aux questions des médias.

Hydro-Québec assure répondre à la demande actuelle en électricité. Mais M. Bernier ne cache pas qu’un promoteur immobilier qui présenterait aujourd’hui un projet tout électrique de plusieurs centaines d’unités pourrait «possiblement représenter un enjeu» de capacité pour la société d’État. «Ça fonctionne aujourd’hui, mais l’enjeu c’est la pression de la croissance et la pointe, a-t-il ajouté. Il faut que ce soit coordonné dans le temps. […] C’est possible qu’on dise que pour faire un tel projet on doive réaliser des travaux aux postes de distribution et à nos réseaux électriques et que ça décale un peu dans le temps.»

Ce n’est pas tant un manque de capacité qu’un développement qui doit être mieux coordonné, assure le haut dirigeant. «La demande vient de plusieurs clientèles et il faut s’assurer que les postes de distribution qui alimentent tous ces clients puissent bien coordonner dans le temps la demande et les travaux de développement de ces postes.»

Construire un nouveau poste de distribution afin d’augmenter la capacité de distribution sur le territoire de Gatineau pourrait prendre cinq à dix ans, a fait savoir Mathieu Boudreau, ingénieur et planificateur du réseau de transport chez Hydro-Québec. Des travaux pour augmenter la capacité des postes existants peuvent aussi s’échelonner sur plusieurs années et doivent être planifiés longtemps à l’avance. «Il faut se coordonner avec la croissance de la demande locale, a-t-il indiqué. On a déjà parfois des postes en dépassement et ça amène des problèmes dans la qualité du service.»

Avec dans ses cartons l’un des plus importants projets d’électrification des transports de la province [tramway], la Ville de Gatineau, mais aussi tous les promoteurs industriels, commerciaux et résidentiels qui convoitent la 4e ville en importance de la province doivent dès maintenant intensifier leurs relations avec Hydro-Québec pour s’assurer d’avoir de l’électricité le moment venu, insiste aujourd’hui la société d’État.

Hydro-Québec est consciente que des «investissements majeurs» en matière de transport, distribution et approvisionnement sont à faire pour soutenir la croissance. «On s’attend à ce que nos investissements doublent au cours des prochaines années», a noté l’ingénieur. C’est aussi pour cette raison qu’Hydro-Québec fait la promotion de la biénergie. L’utilisation de gaz naturel pour chauffer des immeubles produit des GES, mais donne un peu plus de temps à la société d’État pour préparer son réseau aux besoins énergétiques de demain.

APCHQ surprise

Le directeur général de l’Association des professionnels de la construction et de l’habitation du Québec (APCHQ) en Outaouais, Nicolas Brisson, a affirmé avoir été surpris des propos tenus par le directeur de la clientèle affaires d’Hydro-Québec. «Ce problème de capacité pour le résidentiel n’a jamais été porté à notre attention, a-t-il lancé. Il y a des lenteurs pour l’enfouissement des fils et le raccordement des projets, mais c’est la première fois que j’entends Hydro-Québec évoquer des enjeux de capacité pour des projets résidentiels.»

La situation est pour le moins inquiétante, selon le directeur de l’APCHQ, sachant que la région n’échappera pas à la croissance démographique, à l’électrification des transports et au développement commercial et industriel pour encore plusieurs années. «Je crois que le premier ministre Legault doit avoir une discussion avec le président-directeur général d’Hydro-Québec, Michael Sabia, a-t-il insisté. On est en pleine crise du logement et un représentant d’Hydro vient dire à la Ville de Gatineau que des projets résidentiels pourraient être retardés parce qu’on n’a plus d’électricité. Ça devient un enjeu important qu’Hydro-Québec doit clarifier rapidement.»

Nouvelle ère, dit la mairesse

La mairesse de Gatineau, France Bélisle, a reconnu que la capacité de fournir de l’électricité à une Ville en croissance comme la sienne représente de plus en plus un défi. «On n’est plus à l’ère où on pouvait développer en présumant que l’électricité serait naturellement et rapidement disponible, a-t-elle affirmé. C’est pour ça que la collaboration avec Hydro-Québec est absolument essentielle si on veut que notre ville se développe correctement et de façon durable. On a tous la responsabilité de faire une planification plus soutenue. On ne peut plus tenir pour acquis que l’électricité sera immédiatement disponible.»

Le président du comité-choc en logement, Daniel Champagne, a précisé que la question de la capacité énergétique d’Hydro-Québec n’a encore jamais été évoquée lors des discussions au sein de son comité. «Il faut continuer à faire du logement, a-t-il affirmé. S’il y a des préoccupations, il faut les régler. Ça ne peut pas devenir une question technique avec Hydro-Québec qui fasse en sorte qu’on ne pourrait pas livrer du logement sur notre territoire.»

Tramway

Éric Bernier n’avait pas tous les détails entourant l’impact d’un éventuel tramway sur la demande future en électricité à Gatineau, mais la société d’État assure avoir toute l’information pertinente en main. «L’électrification des transports est la donnée qui a le plus d’impact pour Hydro-Québec, ça change la donne, a noté M. Bernier. De manière systématique, tous les projets ont des impacts, une maison ou un tramway. Ça s’accumule à la demande sur les postes de distribution. C’est pour ça qu’on doit coordonner la croissance de manière intelligente avec tous les intervenants, la municipalité et nos clients.»

Obésité énergétique

Dans ce contexte, Hydro-Québec aime à rappeler que «le kilowattheure qu’on ne consomme pas est le kilowattheure le plus payant. En d’autres mots, la société d’État invite tout le monde à réduire sa consommation d’énergie. «On est dans une dynamique d’obésité énergétique au Québec, on ne consomme vraiment pas bien, a souligné M. Bernier. On n’est pas les meilleurs. Le consensus doit être fait sur le bâtiment efficace et la réduction de la consommation.»

Ce discours parle particulièrement à la conseillère d’Action Gatineau, Anik Des Marais, qui voit là une façon pour la Ville de Gatineau d’en faire plus en exigeant dans sa réglementation que les nouveaux bâtiments construits à Gatineau aient une meilleure efficacité énergétique. «On devrait le considérer dans chaque projet, comme on le fait pour la circulation, a-t-elle dit.. On fait des études de circulation avant d’autoriser des projets. On s’assure de la disponibilité de transport en commun. Ça devait être la même logique pour l’efficacité énergétique.»

https://www.ledroit.com/actualites/actua...cOAZZCwXSkCiAM8gleFCyncHwkHklLWjxq1XaVSw

[LeadingEdgeBoomer]

^^^^^^^^
Perhaps the Outaouais should secede from Quebec. Maybe to form a federal district along with Ottawa.

[rocketphish]

Derecho bites $3M out of city's Hydro Ottawa dividend
"The derecho had 195 km/h winds. There's nothing that will withstand that. That's not fragility, that's just God kicking our ass."

Blair Crawford, Ottawa Citizen
Published Oct 25, 2023 • Last updated 1 hour ago • 3 minute read

The 2022 derecho continues to cost the City of Ottawa, knocking more than $3 million off the dividend it would have normally received from its utility company, Hydro Ottawa.

“Were it not for the derecho, (the dividend) would have been $23 million,” Hydro Ottawa’s chief executive officer, Bryce Conrad, told reporters after the company’s annual report was delivered to city council Wednesday. “As it stand now, it’s $20 million.”

The devastating windstorm on the 2022 Victoria Day weekend pummelled the region with winds of nearly 200 km/h, downing or damaging approximately 400 hydro poles and knocking out power to nearly 200,000 customers, some of whom were left in the dark for nearly two weeks. It was the most damaging storm ever for Hydro Ottawa.

The cleanup and repairs cost Hydro Ottawa $25 million, Conrad said, and, despite all three provincial party leaders assuring former mayor Jim Watson during the 2022 Ontario election campaign that they would help pay for the damage, the company was left on its own to swallow the cost.

“It was an election campaign. All three leaders happened to be around Ottawa. They saw the scale and the scope of the event. Mayor Watson put it to them, ‘Will you keep us whole? Will you help us pay for the damage?’ And all three leaders committed to doing so,” Conrad said.

In the end, however, the Ontario government said the damage didn’t qualify for disaster relief funding. Hydro Ottawa could have applied to the Ontario Energy Board to pass the cost onto its customers, but decided not to do so, Conrad said.

“People had been out of power for 10, 11, 12 days. It didn’t seem right,” he said. “We’re not going to add salt to the wounds. We’ll just eat that cost.”

While Conrad described Hydro Ottawa’s power grid as “robust,” with one of the highest reliability rates of any utility company in Ontario, he also warned that customers must be ready to cope with long power outages.

“There’s nothing fragile about our infrastructure. The derecho had 195 km/h winds. There’s nothing that will withstand that. That’s not fragility, that’s just God kicking our ass,” he said.

In the span of 12 months, the city endured the derecho, a December “snow bomb” that knocked power out in some areas for two to three days and a late-spring ice storm that left some customers in the dark for another day or two.

“Three multi-day outages in one calendar year. I’m not a forecaster, but I’m thinking, if that’s the past, we should plan for that going forward,” Conrad said.

“I’ll plan for the infrastructure. We’ll do tree-cutting, we’ll bury lines when we can. We’ll protect the lines. There’s lots of things that we can do, but, at the end of the day, the homeowner has to be prepared to go two or three days without power.”

“Have water, have food for 72 hours. After 72 hours, somebody’s going to be there to help you, whether it will be Hydro and the power comes on, or we’ll have heating stations or food stations set up. Someone will be there to help you. But you need to get through that first 72 hours.”

The Hydro Ottawa annual report was twice delayed because of an 85-day strike by unionized workers. The utility is still assessing how the strike will affect its year-end finances, Conrad said, but the loss of the summer construction season will hurt.

“We’re effectively a large construction company. For every dollar of infrastructure we put in the ground, we earn a rate of return. It was June 26 when the labour disruption started — that’s prime construction season that we lost. So there will be negative impacts financially. But we had to do what we had to do. I’m just happy that they’re back and we can turn the page and move forward.”

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/derecho-bites-3m-out-of-citys-hydro-ottawa-dividend

[rocketphish]

Hydro Ottawa faces 'historic' capital investment to meet soaring demand for electricity
"You're not charging your iPhones if we're not ready for it," says Bryce Conrad, CEO and president of Hydro Ottawa.

Blair Crawford, Ottawa Citizen
Published Jun 25, 2024 • 3 minute read

Hydro Ottawa is “staring down the barrel of an historic investment” as it tries to meet the burgeoning demand for electricity, the utility’s CEO warned city council Tuesday.

Bryce Conrad said the federal government’s push to electrify and reduce Canada’s carbon footprint will require the country to double or even triple its electrical power generation over the next 25 years.

“Imagine every dam, turbine, nuclear plant and solar panel, then picture a couple of more next to them,” Conrad said, as he delivered Hydro Ottawa’s annual report to council.

“Two more Niagara Falls, two more James Bay projects in Quebec …

“This is something way more ambitious than any other national building projects in Canadian history, including the Canadian Pacific Railway, the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Trans-Canada Highway,” Conrad said.

Although the federal government has invested enormously in power generation and transmission lines, there has been no money to help local power distribution systems like Hydro Ottawa, he said.

“We are, effectively, the last mile,” Conrad said. “You’re not charging your iPhones if we’re not ready for it.”

Hydro Ottawa has made applications to the Ontario Energy Board, which sets electricity rates, but Conrad wouldn’t guess how much it will all cost in the end. Hydro Ottawa has no control over its rates on its own. But the investment will require money from the federal and provincial governments.

“I think it’s too much to expect ratepayers to pay for it exclusively,” he said. “Some of that has to be paid for by the taxpayer.”

Demand for electricity is rising so fast that Hydro Ottawa is building a new sub-station every year, something that it used to do every five or seven years. In 2023, its helped install more than 500 new electrical vehicle charging stations, he said. There are now an estimated 5,800 electric vehicles in the city and 7,130 charging stations. People are turning to electric heat pumps to heat and cool their homes.

“Everything is moving toward electrification. It’s the key to decarbonization,” Conrad said.

Meanwhile, Hydro Ottawa continues to pick up the pieces from the May 2022 derecho that snapped 400 poles, downed kilometres of power lines and left 180,000 customers in the dark, some for as long as two weeks. Ottawa has become the “weather alert capital of Canada,” he said.

It used to be that a bad storm might knock out power to 30,000 customers and crews would be able to restore it within six or eight hours, Conrad said.

“Then the derecho hits — no one had ever seen anything like it.”

Last July, Hydro Ottawa recorded 7,000 lightning strikes in its area, three times greater than it had ever seen before.

“These weather patterns are cruel and they’re nasty,” he said.

The derecho prompted Hydro Ottawa to up its game with its infrastructure. Old poles, stayed with guy-wires, are built to withstand winds of 130 km/h. The derecho winds were close to 200 km/h.

Hydro Ottawa is now using more steel and composite poles, is burying cables when cost and locations permit, is increasing its voltages to allow it to transfer power around the grid and is increasing the capacity of sub-stations so they can handle those increased voltages.

“The derecho was a very hard lesson learned for the company,” Conrad said. “It taught us where things need to be reinforced.”

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...t-to-meet-soaring-demand-for-electricity

[Tesladom]

This is completely laughable and total BS, sorry HydroOttawa, I don't buy that.

On a per capita basis, consumption is actually down. Blaming EV for a rise in power usage is not really true, since almost all EV charging is done overnight when there is surplus capacity. Data Centers and AI will likely have a greater impact, and if we move to heat pumps vs nat gas then it will explode since you can't choose when not to heat your house when its -25 outside

Official figures from IESO annual Ontario energy consumption

2015 137TWh
2016 137TWh
2017 132TWh
2018 137.4TWh
2019 135.1TWh
2020 132.2TWh
2021 133.8TWh
2022 137.5TWh

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by Tesladom

This is completely laughable and total BS, sorry HydroOttawa, I don't buy that.

On a per capita basis, consumption is actually down. Blaming EV for a rise in power usage is not really true, since almost all EV charging is done overnight when there is surplus capacity. Data Centers and AI will likely have a greater impact, and if we move to heat pumps vs nat gas then it will explode since you can't choose when not to heat your house when its -25 outside

Official figures from IESO annual Ontario energy consumption

2015 137TWh
2016 137TWh
2017 132TWh
2018 137.4TWh
2019 135.1TWh
2020 132.2TWh
2021 133.8TWh
2022 137.5TWh

Interesting. Are they just drinking the energy transition without thinking about it's local impact? Or trying to get new energy production approved so they can sell it to Hydro-One?
AI Data centers seem unlikely to be located in Ottawa when just across the river electricity is half the cost.
We aren't switching to heat pumps. Even with massive subsidies they make no sense in our climate.
EVs could add daytime demand but that is probably easily solved with more time of day pricing also for delivery.

I think you are right it's a nothing burger.

[Richard Eade]

I read the CTV News article about this, and Ottawa Hydro was asked about electric vehicles, too.

The response:

"If you start charging between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. on a 45-degree day, like we had last week, yah, we're going to have some challenges. We're nowhere near that problem yet."

Conrad estimates there are 5,000 electric vehicles in Ottawa.

"You could effectively double or triple that number, I don't think it's going to have an adverse effect on the grid."

From: https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/ottawa-s-hydro-grid-more-resilient-today-following-2022-derecho-1.6940338

I hope that triple the estimated 5,000 e-vehicles is not a limit. If the government gets its way, there will soon be a whole lot more than 15,000 electric vehicles needing to charge in Ottawa. And many will likely need charging on hot afternoons and during cold mornings.

I think that the “historic” investment that Ottawa Hydro is making now will need to be continued for many years. Which, of course, like this round of investing, will increase the rates that people pay for electricity.

Also from the CTV News article:

Conrad says Hydro Ottawa will be submitting a rate application to the Ontario Energy Board in 2025, which will include spending to meet "customer needs in relation to reliability, resilience, emergency response, electrification and grid modernization."

[J.OT13]

Hydro Ottawa
‪@hydroottawa.bsky.social‬

New fleet, who’s this?

Our team of Field Operators are officially leading our first fully electric mobile fleet. No tailpipe emissions. No fuel costs. Just 100% electric power.

To see the 'by the numbers' breakdown of this team's transition to EVs, check out our latest blog: bit.ly/4eS9JW5

https://bsky.app/profile/hydroottawa.bsky.social/post/3mknpqgbrla2r

[rocketphish]

Data centres hungry for power putting 'extraordinary pressure' on Hydro Ottawa
34 large-load projects looking for hookups, with data centres driving bulk of 1,075 MW in new demand

Arthur White-Crummey · CBC News
Posted: Jun 24, 2026 5:04 PM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours ago

Hydro Ottawa is facing surging power demand from big customers, especially data centres, an "extraordinary pressure" that's only expected to grow.

CEO Bryce Conrad said customers are now seeking hookups for 34 large-load projects that will collectively require 1,075 megawatts, about 86 per cent of Hydro Ottawa’s average system load last year.

Conrad called that the highest volume in the company’s history, and said most want to get connected over the next two years. He said it's just the beginning.

"I am comfortable predicting that by the end of this year we will have received requests to connect that exceed the total amount of power that is used today by residents and businesses within the city of Ottawa," he said while presenting Hydro Ottawa's annual report to city council on Wednesday.

"We are being asked to build and support in the next two to three years what has taken us more the better part of 110 years to build, and to be clear, that growth is not expected to slow anytime soon. In fact, our expectation is that it will continue to scale exponentially."

About 60 per cent of those 1,075 megawatts are coming from data centres. Conrad said they aren’t “big hyperscalers,” like Amazon, Microsoft or Meta, but smaller companies — some of them working in generative AI.

He said government customers are also asking for big hookups, including for national defence.

But Conrad said Hydro Ottawa is sometimes facing lengthy delays making those connections due to supply chain snarls. Where it once took six or nine months to get crucial equipment like transformers, it can now take two years. In some cases, he said he’s waiting four years.

He said it’s tough competing with much bigger players in the U.S. that are looking for the same equipment.

"They’re buying 300 transformers, where we’re buying 15," he said. "That’s what it’s coming down to."

Despite the challenges, Conrad said all that demand is actually good news for Ottawa.

"It means Ottawa is growing," he said. "It means economic activity in the city. These are all good problems to have, we just need to be able to support that growth."

That’s just part of the pressure Hydro Ottawa is facing as it looks to keep up with population growth, electrify Ottawa’s transit system, upgrade infrastructure and protect its assets from cyber risks.

Conrad says it all requires Hydro Ottawa to double its capital investments over the next five years, compared to the previous cycle.

"We are staring down the barrel of a historic cycle of investment in the critical electricity infrastructure that powers our way of life," said Conrad.

"We are on track to almost double the work we did to strengthen and modernize the grid during the previous five-year period."

With that in mind, Conrad defended Hydro Ottawa’s recently announced rate increase. He said the utility remains competitive, amounting to an average hike of $5.87 per month this year.

But that was a smaller increase than the company was looking for when it went to the Ontario Energy Board. Conrad said that process was a huge headache, accusing the board's "deny and defer" mentality of causing problems for Hydro Ottawa.

"I appreciate the need to keep rates low, but when you’re on the cusp or in the midst of exponential growth in demand, they need to change their mindset," he said.

"Unfortunately, the rate application process that we just went through, there are no words to describe how ineffective and brutal that process was, and what I think is a colossal waste of time and money.”

He said it was so onerous that it took 16 months and cost Hydro Ottawa more than $15 million.

Yet Hydro Ottawa is making money. It’s paying the city a $22-million dividend this year, money that can be reinvested in city services.

"As an investment, we outperform the TSX," he said. "I think it’s safe to say any investor would be thrilled with this steady level of performance."

Councillors lauded Hydro Ottawa’s work, though they did have some concerns about reliability.

"The power outages are not long, they’re very short, but they happen," noted River ward Coun. Riley Brockington.

Conrad said Hydro Ottawa has achieved 99.97 per cent service reliability, but he admitted that’s cold comfort when the lights go off.

"Our goal, if there is an outage, is to restore power as quickly as possible," he said. "Every one of these outages is a learning opportunity for the team."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/da...inary-pressure-on-hydro-ottawa-9.7247795

[J.OT13]

This is insane. We can't just allow data centres to set-up without making these companies build power generation infra for themselves or provide capital for local power companies to build up their own supply.

I get the whole data sovereignty argument, but maintaining a reliable power grid is pretty important too.

[urbanforest]

Data sovereignty isn’t even a factor when it’s an American company like Amazon building data centres. We have no control over what happens to data on American-owned servers in Canada.

Agree that it’s absurd for Hydro Ottawa to be bending over backwards for this.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by urbanforest

Data sovereignty isn’t even a factor when it’s an American company like Amazon building data centres. We have no control over what happens to data on American-owned servers in Canada.

Agree that it’s absurd for Hydro Ottawa to be bending over backwards for this.

That's a good point. Data sovereignty is kind of a myth when you think about it.

[sseguin]

The parts that get me the most is when these companies make statements like they did earlier this week, to the effect of human water consumption is limiting water availability for datacenters that desperately need it. (or something like that).

WOW SO SORRY your water hungry machines don't have water because living breathing human beings need so much. Horrible.

Consumer electronics prices are going up, datacenters are taking electricity and water... once everyone is dying of thirst, the plants and farm crops die out, and no one has a current or even semi-current computer due to price and availability, we can rest assured that the datacenters will be fine.