Hydro One, the largest electricity transmission and distribution company in Ontario, Canada, is investing C$33 million ($25 million) to expand the Minden Transmission Station.
The company plans to expand the station through its grid modernization program over the next two years. The project will include the installation of two new buildings to house critical electrical communication equipment and provide protection from the elements, two new transformers to improve reliability and accommodate growth, and grid modernization equipment that will enable remote monitoring of the system to identify outages and take immediate action.
The renovation comes one year after a fire caused by a storm significantly damaged a transformer and knocked out the power in 20,000 homes.
"As we approach one year since the fire, Hydro One will be able to make the permanent upgrades the community is counting on to replace aging infrastructure and build a safe and reliable power supply for years to come," said Darlene Bradley, acting COO at Hydro One. "This expansion is part of Hydro One's plan to make prudent upgrades and investments to increase the supply of power and build a stronger electricity system for the Minden and Haliburton region."
In 2018, Hydro One invested almost C$1.6 billion ($1.2 billion) in its 30,000 circuit kilometers of high-voltage transmission and 123,000 circuit kilometers of primary distribution networks.
Hydro One services almost 1.4 million customers, with approximately C$25.5 billion ($19.5 billion) in assets and 2018 annual revenues of almost C$6.2 billion ($4.7 billion). The utility company is one of six in Canada to achieve the Sustainable Electricity Company designation from the Canadian Electricity Association.
