CENTRE WELLINGTON – Two new hydro distribution stations have been proposed to prevent potential outages in the township.
Following staff recommendations during a Centre Wellington council meeting Monday afternoon, council has approved Centre Wellington Hydro Ltd. (CWH) plans to borrow $4.7 million to replace and construct distribution stations in Elora and Fergus.
This funding is anticipated to be drawn from Infrastructure Ontario or other competitive financial groups in 2024 and 2025.
CWH needs permission from its shareholder, the township, to borrow more than $50,000.
According to CWH president Wayne Dyce, replacing the power transformer at Elora MS-2 in 2024 is essential so the transformer is not loaded to maximum capacity for an extended period if Elora MS-1 were to fail during peak load periods, causing a potential risk of "significant outages."
In 2025, CWH intends to construct a new FMS-5 station transformer in Fergus on the west side of Milligan Park along the McQueen Street right of way.
According to a report, the need for a fifth station was identified to "address the risk of reduced reliability" and the station's "geographical locations" and the "changing load" has made it "more challenging" to balance the company's 12 feeder circuits reliably.
The Fergus distribution grid currently uses four stations to service customers' electrical load.
A memo on the project said CWH plans to borrow $1.5 million to complete the Elora project and $3.2 million to construct a new distribution station in Fergus.
CWH has also applied to the Ontario Energy Board to increase typical residential customer distribution rates by 76 cents per month.
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
