Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro Inc.

Power brokers┬áKitchener-Wilmot Hydro has been providing electricity to its customers for nearly a century. April Terreri is your guide to discover the companyÔÇÖs latest endeavors in 21st-century power upgrades. The electrification of the US and Canada has a romantic past with hydroelectric power. At the turn of the last century, in 1910, Kitchener, Ontario, was the first municipality in Ontario to receive hydro power, generated at Niagara Falls by private companies, from the Hydro-Electric Power CommissionÔÇÖs first 110,000-volt bulk electric power lines.Today, the Hydro-Electric Power Commission is known as Hydro One, and it transmits high-voltage electricity throughout the province and to the municipalities of the City of Kitchener and Township of Wilmot. From here, Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro Inc. takes over as the local electric distribution company, stepping the electricity down to a lower voltage through seven high-voltage transformer stations, with another currently under construction.Although Niagara Falls still provides hydro-generated electricity, power is also generated from coal and renewable energy sources and about 50 percent of the provinceÔÇÖs electricity needs are supplied from nuclear power stations.Most transformer stations throughout Ontario are owned and operated by Hydro One, but Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro (KW Hydro) has owned its own since 1954. ÔÇ£We design, build, own and operate these stations ourselves as a local distribution company,ÔÇØ says Jerry Van Ooteghem, president and CEO. The company, established in 1906, employs 170 people and has annual revenues of C$180 million. KW Hydro is the sole distributor to the two communities, serving over 84,000 residential and business customers, representing a total population of about 230,000. Hydro One delivers high-voltage electricity at either 115 kilovolts or 230 kV to the two jurisdictions.As owner and operator of its transformer stations, KW Hydro can site the stations in locations close to the demand. ÔÇ£We can also control when we need to construct new facilities,ÔÇØ Van Ooteghem explains. ÔÇ£We can also purchase the power for less because we construct and operate these stations ourselves. This is an advantage for us and for our customers.ÔÇØThe company recently completed a 17-year voltage-conversion project in the City of KitchenerÔÇöfrom 1982 through 1998ÔÇöto eliminate twenty-six, 4-kV substations and upgrade its underground and overhead lines, at a cost of C$18 million. The project replaced over 4,000 distribution transformers and poles and about 70 miles of underground cables and reinsulated 165 miles of overhead pole lines to distribute at a higher voltage.A computer-based SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system remotely monitors and controls the seven transformer stations 24/7. ÔÇ£This means we can operate devices remotely from one central control room when we need to operate certain switches to restore power,ÔÇØ explains Van Ooteghem. The system monitors how much power is passing through the system at any time and sends an alert when anything goes wrong, improving response times.Van Ooteghem explains that all the funding for the upgrading projects is self-financed. ÔÇ£We do not usually require any external financing, as we budget ahead of time for constructing these facilities. It takes about three years to build one of these stations, each one costing about $13 million.ÔÇØ With this project complete, KW Hydro is currently constructing an eighth transformer station to distribute electricity to the rural area in the Township of Wilmot. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre building the station closer to the load in order to improve the efficiency of the distribution system,ÔÇØ reports Van Ooteghem. ÔÇ£Our customers will save money because weÔÇÖll have a lower loss factor associated with delivering power.ÔÇØA second major upgrade involves a switch to ÔÇ£smartÔÇØ meters, as mandated by the provincial government to be completed by 2010. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre now in the final stages of negotiating a contract with a revenue meter vendor to supply these meters, and we expect to begin mass installations in July,ÔÇØ reports Van Ooteghem.The present meters measure the total amount of electricity customers use over a one-month or two-month period, but they donÔÇÖt measure when the electricity was used, explains Van Ooteghem. ÔÇ£The new meters will measure the amount of electricity customers use each hour of each day, and theyÔÇÖll be read remotely through a wireless communications network, each night, by a central computer.ÔÇØThe meters will also provide operational data such as when power went out at a particular home, and the company will be able to respond to problems much sooner than the old method of relying on the homeowner to report an outage, or patrolling the lines.ÔÇ£All of this data will be very important in implementing time-of-use pricing,ÔÇØ says Van Ooteghem. There will be three pricing schedules. During the summer, customers will pay the most for using electricity during peak hours 11am to 5pm, Monday through Friday. ÔÇ£We encourage people to shift some of their usage to other times so the network is not strained.ÔÇØ Intermediate pricing applies to usage during the week between the hours of 5pm to 10pm and 7am to 11am. Off-peak pricing applies to usage from 10pm to 7am during weekdays and all day on weekends.ÔÇ£Using the smart meters is really all about trying to lower peak demand and strain on the distribution system so that fewer facilities will need to be built,ÔÇØ Van Ooteghem says. The cost for replacing the 75,000 residential and small business meters will run around C$13 million.Van Ooteghem stresses that conservation is an important issue in Ontario. He notes that over the last four years, KW HydroÔÇÖs customers have saved about 34 million kWh because of the companyÔÇÖs conservation promotions. Residential and commercial initiatives include the pickup and recycling of refrigerators more than 15 years old, a residential demand response program and incentives for businesses to upgrade to energy-efficient lighting and motors. The municipality recently replaced all traffic signals with energy-saving LED signals and the company installed 77 distribution capacitor banks on its overhead lines to improve system efficiency.The company also places a high priority on safety. ÔÇ£From 2003 through 2007, we achieved 1,250,000 consecutive work-hours without lost time due to injuries. This is a remarkable achievement for us, considering the kinds of harsh weather conditions we have to work in,ÔÇØ says Van Ooteghem.  ÔÇô Editorial research by Tim Conlon┬á