By Joel Weiner
You may have missed it while driving north on King Edward Avenue between Rideau Street and York, or strolling along the east sidewalk on that same stretch of road. But, for more than a year now, both hydro facilities at 151 King Edward have been beehives of activity as upgrades are made to accommodate the population surge that’s happening in Lowertown.
One of the two facilities is owned and operated by Hydro One, the provincial grid which transmits electricity produced by Ontario Power Generation and supplies most of our city’s needs. The other belongs to Ottawa Hydro, which distributes Hydro One power within the urban area and also generates its own at two landfill gas-to-energy plants and six hydroelectric stations on the Ottawa River.
“We’ve just completed the transformer-rehabilitation work at King Edward station,” reports Josée Larocque, Manager of Media and Public Affairs at Hydro Ottawa. “What you’re seeing now is Hydro One activity.”
Built in the 1970s, Hydro One’s King Edward Transmission Station supplies 80 megawatts (MW) of power to Hydro Ottawa. That’s equivalent to 80 million watts, and upgrades currently underway will increase capacity to approximately 95 MW.
“In May 2019, we began replacing aging infrastructure and making equipment upgrades at our King Edward station to improve reliability,” explains Hydro One spokesperson Alicia Sayers. “The City of Ottawa, including its downtown core, has grown significantly in the last 40 years and these upgrades will support continued growth in the area.”
According to Sayers, work at the station includes replacing a transformer to increase local capacity along with other station equipment, such as switches and protection and control equipment. Hydro One has also installed a temporary mobile transmission unit to ensure that Hydro Ottawa has reliable power for its customers in the area while upgrades are underway and if a power outage occurs.
“We anticipate all of the work will be completed by next spring and would like to thank Lowertown residents for their patience during this time,” says Sayers.