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City presents electric utility overview; staff recommends continued local generation investment
Summary
The city provided a strategic overview of its electric utility — describing 18 MW of peaking generation, three substations, over 100 miles of distribution lines and a need for continued investment in poles, transformers and redundancy to improve reliability.
City staff presented a strategic overview of Ottawa’s electric utility operations, emphasizing the role of local generation in limiting outage durations and recommending continued investment in local generation and distribution infrastructure.
The presentation outlined that the city operates about 18 megawatts of peaking generation capacity, four generation units (two older units from the late 1950s–1960 and two larger units installed in 1980), and a solar array installed in February 2016. Staff said the city’s peaking units provided the ability to restore power more rapidly during recent extended outages that originated on Evergy’s transmission lines.
Staff also described distribution assets: roughly 103 miles of distribution lines, about 3,650 utility poles carrying primary/secondary distribution, approximately 2,000 additional poles carrying third‑party utilities, 4 pad‑mount transformers and over 1,000 pole‑mounted transformers, and three substations (Second Street, Northeast and Southeast) designed for future expansion. Director Sneeden and colleagues said some distribution infrastructure dates back to 1939 and flagged pole replacement as a long‑term capital need; staff installed 77 poles last year but said sustained higher replacement rates will be required.
Reliability and upgrades: Staff explained feeder circuits and redundant feeder design. They noted completed studies for circuits 8 and 10 (north of the river) and said the city is pursuing a dual feed plan to address a single river‑crossing point of failure. The presentation also described SCADA capabilities and field switches that allow operators to reconfigure feeds during outages.
Questions from commissioners covered the frequency and role of the city’s generation: staff said the plant is a peaking facility and runs when it is more cost effective than market purchases or when called by the integrated market; the city also participates by offering two generators into the integrated market. Commissioners asked about potential power sales from a proposed Proximity Park developer (described as a large generation project) and staff said preliminary discussions indicate the developer may have some excess capacity (roughly 66 MW cited as an initial figure for available capacity, subject to negotiation).
Next steps: Staff recommended continuing to invest in local generation, pole replacement, and circuit redundancy studies. City staff scheduled a more detailed discussion of the city’s energy portfolio and market participation at a later meeting.
Ending: The presentation set the stage for follow‑up briefings on the city’s energy portfolio, capital needs for pole and transformer replacement, and further circuit redundancy projects.
