Hydro One launches $17-billion investment plan to improve reliability for customers

SUDBURY -

On Friday, Hydro One announced its $17 billion investment plan which will consist of building more reliable electrical systems across the province, including here in northern Ontario. 

The announcement was made in Sudbury where officials say this five-year investment plan is focused on improving reliability for customers and reducing the number of power outages.

“We’re predicting that we expect to achieve a 25 per cent reduction in outages for our rural customers on the distribution network,” said Hydro One COO David Lebeter.

“We are making investments in a grid resilience to address climate change, and we’re making investments to address the customers desire for making a future proof system so we’re able to meet their needs today and in the future,” 

Hydro One says it will be upgrading equipment on the distribution system and that includes replacing approximately 65,000 wooden poles. 

Lebeter says the Greater Sudbury area is very different than southern Ontario, and the geography makes restoring service after a power interruption quite challenging at times. 

“This population is spread out…there’s lots of forest and lots of waterways. What that means is we have to run a lot more kilometres of conductor and use more poles,” said Lebeter.

“It makes it more difficult to restore power during an outage which is unfortunate for our customers so we’re putting investments in place which are going to reduce the duration of those outages and reduce the number of outages.”

Officials with the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce say this will give all Hydro One customers some peace of mind knowing that they will have more reliable service. 

“Certainly for the businesses that rely on hydro one,” said Chamber president Debbi Nicholson.

“They can be assured that they are going to have a reliant source of hydro going into the future and for the residents that are hydro one customers, they will know to that they can be assured that they won’t have brown out and black outs and things like that.”

Officials say the improvements will completed by 2023.