Category: Case Studies

Ottawa has been leading the way in street lighting since the beginning. In 1885, Ottawa was one of the first cities in the world to light all of its streets with electricity. Before that, streets were illuminated by oil-fueled lamp posts that needed to be lit every night by city-employed streetlighters travelling on foot or horseback.

 

Insights

Similar to how the City of Ottawa recognized efficiencies with modern technology at the turn of the 20th century, the City once again acknowledged that it was time for a 21st century upgrade and convert high-pressure sodium and metal halide lamps to new Light Emitting Diode, or LED technology for energy efficiency.

Aside from energy efficiency, LEDs are available in a wide variety of intensities, colour renderings and colour temperature options, giving municipalities flexibility depending on their application. They can last 100,000 hours or more and require very little upkeep, lowering maintenance costs significantly. Perhaps one of the most exciting opportunities is that smart lighting controls can be integrated into LED lights to allow for programming (i.e. motion sensors, dimming at specific times of day). All of these benefits make it possible to apply this technology to other areas, such as decorative lighting found at city parks (and dog parks), walking paths, recreational facilities and even certain neighbourhoods.

 

Approach

Hydro Ottawa, through its affiliate Envari Energy Solutions, has successfully converted more than 55,000 streetlights in Ottawa and provided the LED streetlight technology system, to other municipalities like the city of Pembroke, Beckwith township, the village of Casselman, and the town of Renfrew (work completed by Renfrew Hydro).

The City of Ottawa’s LED streetlight project, with its adaptive dimming and asset management control system, has decreased the municipality’s carbon dioxide emissions by a remarkable 1,200 metric tonnes every year, and translates into a 55 per cent reduction in energy consumption; equivalent to $4 million in annual savings.

And the town of Renfrew’s street light project, has resulted in $100,000 in annual energy costs and reduced energy consumption by 600,000 kWh annually – equivalent to averting 50 – 65 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.

 

Impact

“LED streetlights bring environmental, health and cost benefits to the community,” says Bryce Conrad, President and CEO, Hydro Ottawa. “At Hydro Ottawa we remain committed to providing value to our customers and shareholders, and continue to make our products and services more energy-efficient and sustainable for future generations.”

Chaudière Falls is home to Canada’s oldest hydroelectric station still in operation and is considered the birthplace of electricity. Two of the site’s oldest buildings survived the Great Fire of 1900.

Insights

Hydroelectric facilities, like those at Chaudiere Falls, have minimal impact on the environment because they don’t produce pollution or greenhouse gases. Instead they rely on the natural flow of their water source, and can generate power 24 hours a day, seven days a week, all year long.

In recent years, Hydro Ottawa, via its affiliate Portage Power, embarked on expanding and modernizing its generating facilities at Chaudière Falls in order to: produce clean, renewable energy in an environmentally responsible way; be an open public space to be enjoyed by all; and serve as a place of recognition and celebration of Canada’s First Nations and Ottawa’s industrialist past.

Approach

Built entirely below ground, the new 29-megawatt station was designed to have minimal-to-zero impacts on the visual, natural and aquatic environments. The refurbishments include new turbines and generator upgrades, extensive upstream and downstream civil works and other electrical and mechanical improvements.

To ensure safe fish passage through the facility, the design incorporated leading technological solutions to protect migrating American eel, and facilitate their upstream migration past the numerous hydro-electric facilities at Chaudière.

Using a restorative philosophy, the new powerhouse maintained elements of the city’s industrialist past and changed the way people access and experience Chaudière Falls – offering safe viewing platforms and greater public access in the form of a defined corridor on the roof of the new below-grade hydro facility. A new bridge across the intake canal is open for pedestrian and cyclist traffic.

Impact

“This expansion presented a unique opportunity for Hydro Ottawa to contribute to a more sustainable and healthy river,” says Bryce Conrad, President and CEO, Hydro Ottawa. “As part of our environmental commitment, we were able to preserve the landscape, divert endangered species, increase our renewable energy production and reduce our carbon dioxide emission by about 115,000 tonnes each year.”

Energized in 2017, the Chaudière Expansion project (Generating Station 5 or GS5), is Portage Power’s largest producer of clean, renewable hydroelectricity at an output of 29 megawatts (MW). In 2021, two other hydroelectric stations on the Gatineau side of the Ottawa River at  Chaudière Falls – Hull 2 and Gatineau Generating Station No. 1 – resumed operations after extensive refurbishments. Together, upgrades to these stations boosted Portage Power’s overall renewable generation capacity to 128 megawatts – an increase of more than 500 per cent since 2012.

Across North America, populations of Monarch butterflies, bees, and other pollinators are in steep decline due to herbicides, pesticides, climate change and a reduction in natural pollinator habitats. Pollinators are responsible for a third of the world’s food supply.

Insights

Utilities are ideally suited to restore these environments thanks to the number of utility corridors, properties, and right of ways along roadsides throughout their service territory. Moreover, vegetation management along utility corridors is compatible with the type of vegetation necessary to support pollinators.

Approach

In 2019, Hydro Ottawa, via its affiliate Hydro Ottawa Limited – the electricity distribution company – began construction on Cambrian, our largest municipal transformer station ever; situated on 24 acres of land in the south-end of the city. The new 90-megawatt facility will support future growth in Nepean which is expected to more than double over the next 20 years due to planned residential and commercial developments, including the recent addition of a new 10-megawatt Amazon distribution centre.

Hydro Ottawa collaborated with the City of Ottawa and eco-experts from the Canadian Wildlife Federation (CWF) and the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority (RVCA) to create one of the largest pollinator meadows of its kind in eastern Ontario. Given the transformer station requires only five of the 24-hectare site, Hydro Ottawa Limited dedicated 15 acres to a pollinator meadow.   acres were reforested in 2020 with 2,750 trees and the meadow was seeded in the spring of 2021. Hydro Ottawa is supplying the land and covering the costs of the project, including site preparation, professional seeding, and selection of native seed mix, and annual maintenance over a five-year term.

Impact

“We have a core responsibility to provide safe, affordable and reliable power, but it has to be done in a way that also protects our environment and mitigates our impact on it,” says Bryce Conrad, President and CEO of Hydro Ottawa. “An initiative like the pollinator meadow fits with our vision for a brighter and healthier Ottawa.” Hydro Ottawa is proving that no one, plant or creature, is too small to be sondered, and that great opportunities come from symbiosis.

When the station is energized in 2022, south Ottawa will have an abundance of power, and portions of the pollinator meadow will be in bloom to welcome many species as its guests, including the birds and the bees that will call the meadow home. To learn more, listen to the episode “The Birds and the Bees About Pollinator Meadows” on our ThinkEnergy podcast.

Industrial effluents may not readily be associated with combatting climate change or a reduction in carbon emissions but with a little creativity, energy recovery from effluents can do just that.

Insights

The Zibi Community, a 34-hectare waterfront community on the Ottawa River, is a District Energy System relying on energy recovery from effluents from Kruger Products’ Gatineau Plant for heating, and the Ottawa River for cooling. This innovative system – the first in North America to use post-industrial waste heat recovery in a master-planned community – will make Zibi the region’s first zero-carbon-emission community.

Approach

In October 2020, Hydro Ottawa, via its affiliate Hydro Ottawa Limited – the electricity distribution company – partnered with Zibi Canada and Kruger Products to create Ottawa’s first carbon-neutral community by implementing a district energy cooling and heating system to power the Zibi development. This partnership is a first in the region, creating a model for zero-carbon district energy.

Impact

“Zibi’s district energy system is a testament to the power of connection – through partnership, innovation, and a desire to create a future far more sustainable than the past,” says Bryce Conrad, President and CEO, Hydro Ottawa. “By adopting a futurist perspective, we’ve elevated our business lines, products and strategies to meet our community’s environmental expectations and energy needs.”

Zibi tenants and residents will be able to take pride in living and working in one of Canada’s most sustainable communities and realize energy savings by using a temperature controlling application on their mobile devices.