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Hydro One, Petrolia and Bluewater Power investing over $1 million to improve reliability

November 1, 2006 — Hydro One, the Town of Petrolia and Bluewater Power are collectively investing over $1 million to improve electricity delivery reliability for residential, business, commercial and industrial customers in the town and surrounding area.

"We are pleased with our partnership with Hydro One and Bluewater Power, and our ability to improve the quality of life for the Town of Petrolia," explained Petrolia Mayor Brian McManaman.

"This project will significantly upgrade overall reliability in these areas," said Hydro One Customer Operations Manager Gary Ruckle. "It's a reflection of Hydro One's commitment to investing in its power delivery system and providing a high level of service to customers."

"Bluewater Power staff continually strive to deliver reliable electricity to all of our distribution customers. It is rewarding to see an important element of our plan, to further improve power quality in the Town of Petrolia and surrounding areas, come to fruition," stated Bluewater Power's Director of Operations, Brad Gray.

The project involves construction of a major new power line and installation of new breakers at Hydro One's Wanstead Transformer Station (TS).

The 2.5 kilometre line from Wanstead TS to LaSalle Line will be almost exclusively dedicated to Petrolia which is served by Bluewater Power. This will free up capacity on the existing feed that serves other areas as well. The new line will include 46 poles and almost 300 insulators, and provide more supply flexibility to the whole area since electrical load can be transferred instantly from one feed to the other if there are problems on the system. Construction began October 16, and the new line and breakers are expected to be in-service by January 31, 2007.

Hydro One will be investing about $600,000 to upgrade Wanstead TS and $145,000 for the line. The Town of Petrolia will be contributing approximately $345,000 to the cost of these system improvements.

Over the past five years Hydro One has invested about $4.5 billion in capital projects and maintenance to sustain and upgrade its high-voltage transmission and low-voltage distribution systems throughout the province.

Hydro One delivers electricity safely, reliably and responsibly to homes and businesses across the province of Ontario and owns and operates Ontario's 29,000 kilometre high-voltage transmission network that delivers electricity to large industrial customers and municipal utilities, and a 122,000 kilometre low-voltage distribution system that serves about 1.3 million end-use customers and smaller municipal utilities in the province. Hydro One is wholly owned by the Province of Ontario.

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For more information and to make arrangements for photography, contact Hydro One Media Relations 24 hours a day at 1-877-506-7584 (toll-free in Ontario only) or 416-345-6868. Our website is www.HydroOne.com.