Toronto Hydro

Last updated

Toronto Hydro Corporation
Toronto Hydro
Company type Municipally owned corporation
Industry Electric utility
PredecessorToronto Hydro-Electric Commission
Founded1998
Headquarters14 Carlton Street
Toronto, Ontario
Area served
Toronto, Ontario
Key people
  • Anthony Haines
    (President & CEO)
  • David McFadden
    (Chair of the Board)
RevenueIncrease2.svg $3,601.7 million CAN (total revenue) (2022) [1]
Increase2.svg $163.9 million CAN (after net movements in regulatory balances) (2022) [1]
Total assets Increase2.svg $6,947.0 million CAN (total assets and regulatory balance) (2022) [1]
Total equity Increase2.svg $2,062.0 million CAN (total equity) (2022) [1]
Owner City of Toronto
Number of employees
1,245 (2022) [2]
Subsidiaries
  • Toronto Hydro-Electric System Limited
  • Toronto Hydro Energy Services Inc.
Website torontohydro.com
Toronto Hydro vehicle TorontoHydroVan.jpg
Toronto Hydro vehicle

Toronto Hydro Corporation is an electric utility that operates the electricity distribution system for the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. As of 2018, it serves approximately 772,000 customers [3] and delivers approximately 19% of the electricity [3] consumed in Ontario.

Contents

History

Toronto Hydro has been serving the city of Toronto for over a century.

1910s: Electricity first came to Toronto in the late 1880s. A number of private companies were formed to meet demand. In 1908, Torontonians voted overwhelmingly for the formation of a municipal electricity company. Toronto Hydro-Electric System was introduced on May 2, 1911 at Old City Hall.

1920s: Toronto Hydro merged with the private electricity companies in the 1920s, leading to a 95 per cent increase in the number of meters and a 200 per cent increase in the kilowatt-hours (kWh) sold. Further demand came from an approximately 50 per cent rise in appliance sales.

1930s: Demand for electricity decreased for the first time during the Depression. In order to protect jobs, unionized workers agreed to reduce their work hours to 40 hours per week. While some layoffs were necessary, those jobs were offered back to employees when electricity consumption picked up in 1940.

By Toronto's centennial in 1934, the city had approximately 920 kilometres (km) of paved streets, 880 km of which were lit by electricity. In 1937, Toronto Hydro sold more than 1 billion kWh of electricity for the first time in its history.

1940s: During the Second World War, Toronto Hydro appealed to its customers to conserve energy. Electricity consumption for signs, show-windows, displays and advertising was banned. Street lighting was reduced by approximately 20 per cent and daylight saving time was extended throughout winter to reduce the afternoon peak electrical load. The increased efficiency created a profit that Toronto Hydro passed down to its customers in temporary rate reductions.

1950s: Between 1945 and 1955, Toronto's kWh consumption increased by 75 per cent. This was due to the post-war baby boom and increased immigration. Toronto Hydro raced to keep up, building 12 new electrical substations throughout the city. The electrical system was converted from 25 Hertz (cycles per second) to 60 Hertz, and over 200,000 meters were replaced.

1960s: The convenience of electricity was heavily promoted. As a result, electricity use grew at home and in the workplace. Between 1964 and 1974, Toronto Hydro spent more than $31 million to put overhead wires and transformers underground.

1970s: As environmentalism grew, Toronto Hydro introduced a variety of energy conservation programs and incentives to customers.

The building boom of the late 1960s meant that in 1970, Toronto Hydro's peak load increased 5.6 per cent over the previous year. New additions to the Toronto skyline, including the CN Tower, First Canadian Place, the Royal Bank Plaza and Hydro Place, added over 44,500 kW of demand to the grid.

1980s: In the 1980s, Toronto Hydro became the largest municipal electricity distribution utility in Canada. The organization introduced a customized Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system (SCADA), which enabled operators to accurately and remotely monitor the distribution system.

As Toronto Hydro moved to digital, other organizations followed suit. The introduction of desktop computers, printers, networks and photocopiers meant additional demand.

1990s: On January 1, 1998, Bill 103 amalgamated six municipal electric utilities into one, nearly tripling Toronto Hydro's customer base to approximately 650,000 customers.

In January 1998, approximately 350 employees helped restore power following the ice storm in eastern Ontario and southern Quebec. Crews worked 12 to 20 hours a day and coped with harsh conditions and unfamiliar equipment. In 1999, the City of Toronto became Toronto Hydro's sole shareholder when the utility incorporated.

2000s: In 2001, Toronto Hydro began powering 100 vehicles with low-sulphur diesel and soy-based biodiesel fuel.

In December 2002, Toronto Hydro built a 65-metre tall wind turbine at Exhibition Place in partnership with the Toronto Renewable Energy Co-operative (TREC). Toronto Hydro launched its first smart meter projects in 2005 to approximately 500 customers, and, in 2010, started transitioning customers to Time-of-Use rates to help them better manage their electricity bills.

2010s: In 2011, Toronto Hydro launched various social media channels, which has given its customers the ability to interact with the organization in a variety of convenient ways.

In 2013, Toronto Hydro started construction on the new Clare R. Copeland Transformer Station, the first underground station in downtown Toronto.

In 2015, Toronto Hydro unveiled Hydrostor, the world's first underwater compressed air energy storage system, located three kilometres off Toronto Island. This “underwater battery” stores electricity when demand is low and can be released when the grid needs a boost.

In 2016, Toronto Hydro installed the world's first pole-top energy storage unit. The unit's lithium-ion batteries charge during off-peak hours and then discharge energy to Toronto Hydro's grid during peak hours.

In 2017, Toronto Hydro launched PowerLens®, an online platform allowing customers to view how their homes use electricity so that they can take steps towards conservation and saving.

The Ontario Energy Board approved Toronto Hydro's 2015-2019 rates application. Over this five-year period, Toronto Hydro has secured more than $2 billion in capital funding that it will use to meet the growing demand for electricity, to safeguard against extreme weather events and upgrade aging infrastructure.

Awards

Toronto Hydro has been recognized with the following awards:

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ontario Hydro</span> Defunct Canadian provincial utility corporation, 1906–2015

Ontario Hydro, established in 1906 as the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, was a publicly owned electricity utility in the Province of Ontario. It was formed to build transmission lines to supply municipal utilities with electricity generated by private companies already operating at Niagara Falls, and soon developed its own generation resources by buying private generation stations and becoming a major designer and builder of new stations. As most of the readily developed hydroelectric sites became exploited, the corporation expanded into building coal-fired generation and then nuclear-powered facilities. Renamed as "Ontario Hydro" in 1974, by the 1990s it had become one of the largest, fully integrated electricity corporations in North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Net metering</span> Type of billing of electricity generated from renewable sources

Net metering is an electricity billing mechanism that allows consumers who generate some or all of their own electricity to use that electricity anytime, instead of when it is generated. This is particularly important with renewable energy sources like wind and solar, which are non-dispatchable. Monthly net metering allows consumers to use solar power generated during the day at night, or wind from a windy day later in the month. Annual net metering rolls over a net kilowatt-hour (kWh) credit to the following month, allowing solar power that was generated in July to be used in December, or wind power from March in August.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electricity meter</span> Device used to measure electricity use

An electricity meter, electric meter, electrical meter, energy meter, or kilowatt-hour meter is a device that measures the amount of electric energy consumed by a residence, a business, or an electrically powered device over a time interval.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manitoba Hydro</span> Electric power and natural gas utility company in Manitoba, Canada

The Manitoba Hydro-Electric Board, operating as Manitoba Hydro, is the electric power and natural gas utility in the province of Manitoba, Canada. Founded in 1961, it is a provincial Crown Corporation, governed by the Manitoba Hydro-Electric Board and the Manitoba Hydro Act. Today the company operates 16 interconnected generating stations. It has more than 527,000 electric power customers and more than 263,000 natural gas customers. Since most of the electrical energy is provided by hydroelectric power, the utility has low electricity rates. Stations in Northern Manitoba are connected by a HVDC system, the Nelson River Bipole, to customers in the south. The internal staff are members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 998 while the outside workers are members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2034.

India is the third largest producer of electricity in the world. During the fiscal year (FY) 2022–23, the total electricity generation in the country was 1,844 TWh, of which 1,618 TWh was generated by utilities.

Energy demand management, also known as demand-side management (DSM) or demand-side response (DSR), is the modification of consumer demand for energy through various methods such as financial incentives and behavioral change through education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hydro One</span> Electricity transmission and distribution utility serving in Ontario, Canada

Hydro One Limited is an electricity transmission and distribution utility serving the Canadian province of Ontario. Hydro One traces its history to the early 20th century and the establishment of the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario. In October 1998, the provincial legislature passed the Energy Competition Act which restructured Ontario Hydro into separate entities responsible for electrical generation, transmission/delivery, and price management with a final goal of total privatization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electricity sector in Canada</span>

The electricity sector in Canada has played a significant role in the economic and political life of the country since the late 19th century. The sector is organized along provincial and territorial lines. In a majority of provinces, large government-owned integrated public utilities play a leading role in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity. Ontario and Alberta have created electricity markets in the last decade to increase investment and competition in this sector of the economy.

"Providing the Balance of Power. Ontario Hydro's Plan to Serve Customers' Electricity Needs" was a four-volume 1989 study to the year 2014 by Ontario Hydro, the then supplier of electric power for the province of Ontario, Canada. The general public of Ontario was provided with copies of this report free of charge, and ask for feedback.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Demand response</span> Techniques used to prevent power networks from being overwhelmed

Demand response is a change in the power consumption of an electric utility customer to better match the demand for power with the supply. Until the 21st century decrease in the cost of pumped storage and batteries, electric energy could not be easily stored, so utilities have traditionally matched demand and supply by throttling the production rate of their power plants, taking generating units on or off line, or importing power from other utilities. There are limits to what can be achieved on the supply side, because some generating units can take a long time to come up to full power, some units may be very expensive to operate, and demand can at times be greater than the capacity of all the available power plants put together. Demand response, a type of energy demand management, seeks to adjust in real-time the demand for power instead of adjusting the supply.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Negawatt market</span> Theoretical unit of power savings

Negawatt power is investment to reduce electricity consumption rather than investing to increase supply capacity. In this way, investing in negawatts can be considered as an alternative to a new power station and the costs and environmental concerns can be compared.

Nova Scotia Power Inc. is a vertically integrated electric utility in Nova Scotia, Canada. It is privately owned by Emera and regulated by the provincial government via the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board (NSUARB). Nova Scotia Power Inc provides electricity to 520,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in Nova Scotia.

The electricity policy of Ontario refers to plans, legislation, incentives, guidelines, and policy processes put in place by the Government of the Province of Ontario, Canada, to address issues of electricity production, distribution, and consumption. Policymaking in the electricity sector involves economic, social, and environmental considerations. Ontario's electricity supply outlook is projected to deteriorate in the near future due to increasing demand, aging electricity supply infrastructure, and political commitments, particularly the phase-out of coal-fired generation. Policymakers are presented with a range of policy choices in addressing the situation, both in terms of overall system design and structure, and specific electricity generating technologies.

Financial incentives for photovoltaics are incentives offered to electricity consumers to install and operate solar-electric generating systems, also known as photovoltaics (PV).

A feed-in tariff is a policy mechanism designed to accelerate investment in renewable energy technologies by offering long-term contracts to renewable energy producers. This means promising renewable energy producers an above-market price and providing price certainty and long-term contracts that help finance renewable energy investments. Typically, FITs award different prices to different sources of renewable energy in order to encourage the development of one technology over another. For example, technologies such as wind power and solar PV are awarded a higher price per kWh than tidal power. FITs often include a "digression": a gradual decrease of the price or tariff in order to follow and encourage technological cost reductions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electricity pricing</span>

Electricity pricing can vary widely by country or by locality within a country. Electricity prices are dependent on many factors, such as the price of power generation, government taxes or subsidies, CO
2 taxes, local weather patterns, transmission and distribution infrastructure, and multi-tiered industry regulation. The pricing or tariffs can also differ depending on the customer-base, typically by residential, commercial, and industrial connections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electricity policy of Alberta</span>

The electricity policy of Alberta, enacted through several agencies, is to create an electricity sector with a competitive market that attracts investors, while providing consumers with reliable and affordable electricity, as well as reducing harmful pollution to protect the environment and the health of Albertans, according to their 2022 website.

The United States has the second largest electricity sector in the world, with 4,178 Terawatt-hours of generation in 2023. In 2023 the industry earned $491b in revenue at an average price of $0.127/kWh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alberta Electric System Operator</span>

The Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) is the non-profit organization responsible for operating Alberta, Canada's power grid. AESO oversees the planning and operation of the Alberta Interconnected Electric System (AIES) in a "safe, reliable, and economical" manner. It is mandated by provincial legislation to act in the public interest and cannot own any transmission, distribution or generation assets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Energy in California</span> Overview of the use of energy in California, U.S.

Energy is a major area of the economy of California. California is the state with the largest population and the largest economy in the United States. It is second in energy consumption after Texas. As of 2018, per capita consumption was the fourth-lowest in the United States partially because of the mild climate and energy efficiency programs.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Toronto Hydro 2022 Annual Report (PDF, 6.5 MB)" (PDF).
  2. ↑ "Toronto Hydro Annual Information Form 2022 (PDF, 701 KB)" (PDF).
  3. 1 2 "Toronto Hydro 2018 Annual Report (PDF, 13.2 MB)" (PDF).
  4. ↑ "Announcing the 2018 Canada's Safest Employers". www.thesafetymag.com. Retrieved March 2, 2023.
  5. ↑ "Canadian Electricity Association Occupational Health & Safety Awards".
  6. ↑ "CEA Honours Industry Leaders in Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility" . Retrieved March 2, 2023.
  7. ↑ "CEA Honours Industry Leaders in Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility". Electricity Canada. Retrieved March 2, 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.