One aspect of our business we are always engaged in is system planning. The vast majority of this relates to our own system here in Niagara-on-the-Lake but we do also provide input to the planning of the larger transmission system.
There are multiple objectives for the system planning. These include:
- Keeping rates low. We do not want to invest unnecessarily and drive rates up.
- Having redundancy. We want to ensure that no matter what happens we can keep the power on as much as possible.
- Keeping outages short. Creating as much flexibility in the system as possible so as to prevent or shorten outages.
When NOTL Hydro was first created in its current form in the early 2000’s, the biggest challenge was reliability. There were too many outages stemming from the connections to the grid. The emphasis of the early system planning was upgrading these connections. The net result was the purchasing of one station and the building of another. NOTL Hydro is now in the fortunate position of being one of two municipal electricity distributors that owns the stations that provides its entire load from the grid.
The next focus was on rates. Prior to the creation of NOTL Hydro, the rates in Niagara-on-the-Lake were some of the highest. Investments were carefully managed over the next ten years so that the rates became one of the lowest. This was not done by “harvesting” the assets. Harvesting means using the assets but not reinvesting. Instead, new investments were limited to what was necessary, which was generally the ongoing voltage conversion projects. If you do not keep investing in a system then you allow it to age and your problems and the costs to fix them will be that much worse in the future.
It should be noted that during this time there was very little growth in demand. There were no large new loads and the load savings from conservation were offsetting any natural growth.
The next focus, between 2015-2020, was on redundancy. NOTL Hydro owned the two stations but neither could support the full load of the system at peak times. Both stations were expanded so that either can now support the full load of the system with lots of capacity for future growth. This considerably reduces the risk of a major outage.
Today, there are two focusses with the system planning. The first is on creating flexibility in the system so as to reduce the impact of outages. One reason for this focus is the demands of customers. Customers are becoming less and less tolerant of outages as more aspects of our lives become digitized and the impact of outages becomes more significant. The second reason is the development and improvement of smart grid devices such as switches and reclosers that make this flexibility possible. NOTL Hydro has been investing in these switches for a number of years and has plans to accelerate these investments over the next few years. Two examples of the benefits of these investments: we are now able to switch power between our two stations in an automated fashion and, depending on the location and nature of an outage, we are now able to reduce the impact of that outage by up to 90% by switching the feeder lines
The second focus is on “hardening” the system. We are seeing more and more growth in the NOTL Hydro system, especially from larger new loads such as greenhouses, hotels and larger retail outlets. As noted above we have plenty of capacity to support this growth but sometimes there are challenges ensuring that we have full redundancy at some spots in the system. This hardening does not usually involve expanding the system but rather upgrading the assets in the field so that they can handle larger loads. Some of this hardening will be large projects such as replacing blocks of poles and lines while others will be small projects like replacing individual items on some poles.
Focus does not mean exclusive. We continue to be very cognizant of our rates as we want to keep them as some of the lowest. We also continue to invest in the regular system upgrades. The voltage conversion projects continue on the Firelanes and in the Old Town with the expectation that the entire voltage conversion project will be completed within 10 years. Focus does, however, mean prioritization. Every year and even during a year we evaluate where our investments will add the most value and plan accordingly.
System planning is always done with an eye to the future. We have room for growth at both our stations and are taking steps now to facilitate that growth should it be needed. Similar planning is being done with the feeder lines to ensure this future capacity is available throughout the Town as needed.
Finally, NOTL Hydro participates in the regional planning for the Niagara area performed by the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO). Our system and needs are small compared to what exists across Ontario but Niagara-on-the-Lake does have a voice at the table.