Minister of Energy Visits Hydro One's Grid Control Centre

TORONTO, Jan. 23, 2014 /CNW/ - Today, Bob Chiarelli, Minister of Energy along with Carm Marcello, President and CEO, Hydro One thanked the employees of Hydro One's Grid Control Centre for their round-the-clock work during the ice storm.

"I am so proud of the work our employees do every day," said Carm Marcello, President and CEO, Hydro One. "The Ontario Grid Control Centre is the nerve centre of our grid and this team helps ensure the lights stay on for our customers by monitoring conditions and working with our customers and our field teams in outage situations."

"I would like to thank employees at Hydro One's Grid Control Centre for their dedication to helping Ontarians during the recent ice storm," said Bob Chiarelli, Minister of Energy. "Hydro One's commitment to safe, reliable energy systems ensures its customers continue to receive the exceptional level of service they have come to rely on."

The Ontario Grid Control Centre's key functions are to carry out transmission operations for 85 local electricity distribution companies in Ontario, control Hydro One's distribution operations, and coordinate power restoration throughout its network of transmission and distribution assets.

From this one location, Ontario Grid Control Centre staff work with 81 Hydro One Customer Operation Centres across the province to respond to emergencies and coordinate response efforts.

The transmission system controlled by the Ontario Grid Control Centre includes 29,000 kms of transmission line, 123,500 kms of distribution line, enough to circle the earth three times; 91,195 transmission structures (towers and poles), 284 transmission stations, and 1,008 distribution stations.

Hydro One delivers electricity safely, reliably, and responsibly to homes and businesses across the province of Ontario and owns and operates Ontario's 29,000 km high-voltage transmission network that delivers electricity to large industrial customers and municipal utilities, and a 122,000 km low-voltage distribution system that serves about 1.3 million end-use customers and smaller municipal utilities in the province. Hydro One is wholly owned by the Province of Ontario.

SOURCE: Hydro One Inc.

Hydro One Media Relations 24 hours a day at 1-877-506-7584 (toll-free in Ontario only) or 416-345-6868. Our website is www.HydroOne.com.