Investing in our future

Why is resilience a priority?

Disruptions happen for various reasons, from equipment failures and cyberattacks to natural disasters. However, climate change is driving more frequent and intense severe weather events, like the 2022 derecho. These storms severely challenge the reliability of our power supply. We must invest in grid resilience to withstand the growing impacts of this changing climate.

What does investment involve?

Grid resilience is our distribution network’s ability to withstand, adapt to and recover from disruptions. This effort includes:

• Investing in smart grid technology, distributed energy resources and microgrids
• Enhancing system design and redundancy for faster outage response
• Strategically burying power lines
• Proactively trimming or removing trees

Our goal is to anticipate and mitigate risks. We also want to recover quickly and learn from every event to enhance future resilience.

What could happen if we don’t invest enough?

If we don’t invest in this area, people and businesses in our communities will face longer and more frequent power outages, which will only worsen as severe weather increases. A vulnerable grid creates safety risks (especially for those with medical devices) and disrupts businesses and essential services. The costs of repairs will also add up over time, which could lead to higher rates for our customers. Investing in resilience is a sound preventative measure.

Why is addressing aging infrastructure a priority?

Our electricity distribution network consists of around 165,000 assets, including stations, overhead lines and underground infrastructure. As these systems get older, their risk of failure increases.

A significant portion of our assets (about 25 per cent) have reached the end of their expected service life. Another 15 per cent are expected to reach this point within the next decade. Additionally, more than 60 per cent of our 367,000 electricity meters are operating beyond their expected service life. To make sure we can continue to deliver electricity without interruption, we must prioritize maintenance along with investment in new assets.

What does investment involve?

Because we cannot replace everything at once, our investment process requires careful planning. We prioritize the replacement of assets classified as being in “poor” or “very poor” condition because they pose the highest risk of failure.

More investment means better service:

• Replacing old stations and distribution assets reduces the chance of unplanned outages.
• Replacing older meters and evolving our advanced metering infrastructure ensures more accurate billing and customer satisfaction.

What could happen if we don’t invest enough?

While delaying investments may mean lower costs in the short term, it could mean steeper rate increases later.

More importantly, a lack of investment leaves our system vulnerable to extended outages during critical periods. That can negatively affect service quality as well as the ability of businesses in the region to innovate. 

Furthermore, as the population of Ottawa and Casselman continues to grow, our existing 4kV substations (many of which are reaching their end of life) will be beyond capacity. This will require a proactive transition to a higher voltage infrastructure.

Why are growth and preparing for electrification priorities?

The transition from fossil fuels to electricity will drive a surge in demand as more customers adopt technologies like electric vehicles (EVs) and heat pumps. Electrification, especially in transportation, is increasing as Canada works toward phasing out the sale of combustion-powered vehicles by 2035. To ensure our grid is ready to meet this future demand, we need to invest in expanding its capacity.

What does investment involve?

We are preparing our grid through strategic investments and innovations, including:

• Strategic infrastructure: Building new substations, increasing operating voltages and installing new lines to meet anticipated demand.
• New innovations: Expanding our use of smart grid technology for real-time monitoring, using automation to manage electricity flows and exploring artificial intelligence (AI) to better predict demand. Smart grid technology can also encourage off-peak charging for EVs, reducing strain on the grid.
• Customer management: Introducing incentive programs for efficient electricity use and expanding the use of distributed energy resources (like solar and battery systems) to manage peak demand.

What could happen if we don’t invest enough?

Proactive preparation is critical. Failing to invest puts us at risk of falling behind, which could have serious consequences for our customers.

An overloaded, outdated system will buckle under increased pressure, leading to more frequent and widespread power outages that disrupt daily life and essential services. If we have to limit new connections, economic growth and development will suffer. Given our region’s significant population growth, we need to invest now to ensure we can continue to serve power to everyone who needs it.

Why is grid modernization a priority?

Much of our infrastructure was built between the 1960s and 1980s. The system planners back then could not have possibly predicted our current pace of change. Today's challenges — including decarbonization, more severe weather events and shifting customer expectations — demand a more modern grid.

Modernization will enhance reliability by integrating technologies like automation and AI. That will reduce the frequency of outages and enable us to restore power much faster when they do happen. It will also make the grid more secure and resilient against severe weather and cyber threats.

What does investment involve?

Our grid modernization strategy includes investments in:

• Maintaining the software required for our operations
• Adding smart devices to give us remote visibility into the grid’s status
• Expanding our existing communications infrastructure

A modernized smart grid will feature capabilities like advanced monitoring, proactive failure detection and automated system restoration. These will all help lower the frequency and length of outages. A data-driven approach will also support carbon emission reduction and empower customers with tools to track and control their own energy use.

What could happen if we don’t invest enough?

To ensure a reliable, resilient power supply for tomorrow, we must invest today. Deferring investments would prevent us from seizing the opportunities offered by smart grid technologies, distributed energy resources and microgrids — all of which require modern infrastructure.

Without the tools provided by modernization, we’d be less able to improve service reliability and increase grid uptime. We'd also be less able to respond quickly to outages and, as the market shifts toward "prosumers" (customers who both consume and generate power), we'd be less able to integrate resources like solar panels and battery storage into the grid.