Hydro One presents annual update to council
By ALAN LICZYK Staff Reporter

There were no major storms for Hydro One to deal with this year Caledon council was told during the the company's annual update recently.

Terry Bateman, customer operations manager for the Orangeville area, explained a major storm is defined as being greater than 24 hours. There were eight small storms occurring Jan. 8, March 1, April 24, May 31, June 8, July 8, Aug. 7 and Sept. 7.

Bateman noted Hydro One received the Edison Recover Award from the Edison Electric Institute for storm restoration in 2006.

To date, Hydro One has responded to 914 trouble calls, up from 670 at the same time last year. The average response time is 83 minutes, including small storm response times.

Among the key factors causing power outages are weather and equipment failure (37 per cent), human error (25 per cent), wildlife (17 per cent) and tree growth (13 per cent).

Councillor Annette Groves said it's important to keep the dialogue open with Hydro One. She observed the length of power outages has decreased and she thanked Bateman for that.

She added she doesn't want to see any overhead wires in subdivisions.

"It doesn't look good," she said.

Bateman replied if there's a direct feed it's not a problem.

Improvements to be completed this year include the Coleraine Drive line relocation and upgrade, new high voltage switching in Bolton and Snelgrove, vegetation management in Bolton and Boston Mills areas, Highway 410 prework at Kennedy Road, Mayfield Road and Highway 10, and a new tie between the Bolton Hardwick station and Macville station.

Line improvements to occur in 2008 include one new 44,000 volt feeder and one new 27,600 volt feeder out of the Kleinburg station to the north end of Bolton at an estimated cost of $3.5 million, line rehabilitation work on Mount Pleasant Road and Mount Hope Road at an estimated cost of $325,000, line relocations for the Highway 10 widening through Caledon village costing an estimated $500,000 and The Gore Road line relocation costing an estimated $375,000.

Future line improvements include the Dixie Road line relocation for road improvement costing $345,000 in 2008. a new 16,000 volt station at Snelgrove and voltage conversion in the surrounding area costing $3 million in 2009, a new 44kV feeder into the Snelgrove area costing $2.2 million in 2009, infrastructure for the new Mayfield West community and refurbishment of the Bolton Hardwick station.