In July of 2018, a transformer from the 1950s caught fire at our Minden Transmission Station during a storm — affecting over 20,000 customers. Thanks to community volunteers and first responders, these remarkable men and women successfully responded to the emergency without a single safety incident.

The fire interrupted Hydro One plans to upgrade the site and replace aging infrastructure.
 

Last month, the Minden Transmission Station received long-awaited upgrades. Crews also replaced several aging poles from the 1950s and installed smart devices as part of Hydro One’s Grid Modernization Project.

These digital solutions limit the number of customers affected by an outage and can restore power to customers faster — overall improving reliability and safety.

Since then, the team has also energized one new transformer and are laying the foundation for a second.

Laying the foundation for the new transformer at Minden Transmission Station

This will improve reliability and increase the available power supply to the region to accommodate commercial and residential growth.

As with all our projects, crews bundled work as much as possible and removed hazardous vegetation. This approach reduces service disruptions to customers and the need for future planned outages.

Building a grid for the future

Did you know that we can limit the number of customers affected by an outage by installing new smart devices?

Our Grid Modernization Project includes upgrades with the latest technology including smart switches and digital sensors. These modern devices better detect the location of an issue and can allow crews to remotely monitor the system.

• Smart switches allow teams to isolate problem areas remotely, minimizing the amount of customers who experience a power outage.

• Digital sensors better detect the location of a problem, which helps direct crews to the source of the issue and allows them to spend more time making repairs and restoring power instead of patrolling long power lines in challenging terrain.

Hydro One crews installing new smart devices to enhance power reliability.

By investing in the latest technologies, we are creating a smarter system. We are also making necessary upgrades to any aging infrastructure to ensure safety and reliability for years to come — building a better and brighter Ontario for all.