Essex- we are not alone with our questions
Late 2020 a delegation from ELK Energy appeared as a delegate at the Municipality of Lakeshore.
November 10th on Lakeshore T.V., you can watch the full meeting with ELK and Lakeshore Councillors by clicking the link below. I have provided a paraphrase for quick reading below.
Mayor Tom Bain: opened the meeting saying the meeting was about Capital Projects and we are going to find out some of the answers we have about ELK.
Mark Danelon: CFO and Director of Stakeholder relations brings forward a report on ELK infrastructure. He opens with a statement on Corporate goals, one being a safe and reliable electricity distribution system with capacity to meet expectations. ELK is in the middle of a complete asset condition assessment with Connectrics. Connectrics looks at data gathered from ELK and staff interviews and uses their expertise to identify gaps. A long term strategy is going to be identified with these gaps and we can work to close these gaps. Poles, pole mounted transformers, pad mounted transformers, gang switches, underground primary cable are going to be looked at to develop an ELK specific health index formula. For each of these categories a health index will be developed and a risk assessment will be done. We are developing a ten year strategy and a 15 year strategy for our wood poles. We have tested 10 percent of our poles that are pre 2000.
ELK is also rolling our a pilot project on animal guards over transformers. We are also looking at increased tree trimming and looking at areas that have had multiple interruptions due to animals. We are also looking at infrared scans. . For 2020 we completed the following infrastructure, 7 pad mount transformers in ELK territory and the underground feed, 142 new underground services, design work for two new subdivisions, an apartment building and we are looking to replace a pole at the Libro Credit Union. Hopefully that provided some insight into ELK’s infrastructure.
Councillor John Kerr: The invitation was extended to ELK from the Terra Lou area, they are not happy there. We have had 4 outages, actually 5 that took out the backup pumps. We were told its a squirrel, bird, lightening and it is all in the same area and takes away from the residents desire to not believe its something more. They call me too and they want me to put you in a head lock, beat you up and make it go away. Unfortunately I do not have that power but I would like it to go away. Some of the questions that came through about the up and coming assessment, would this include things like fuse coordination, cracked insulators, cracked arrestors, phased in balancing will some of those questions be answers and some of these switched out.
Mark Danelon the assessment only targets those 5 main assets listed above I can let operations know about these other items. When there is an outage we always investigate the cause and look at what could of possibility prevented. We look at the structure to see if its defective equipment. I do sympathize with the customers, we are looking into the causes. We try to take one customer issue at a time. Not sure if that answers your questions.
Councillor John Kerr: There are two petitions now looking at putting up backup generators because when the power goes out everyhting backs up and ends up in the basement. These home owners can not get insurance on their basements. They are not happy. Does ELK have a sponsorship program for back up generators to help neighbours who are constantly under water?
Mark Danelon: There are no grants out there. We are governed by the Ontario Energy Board so from a cost perspective everything falls under them.
Councillor John Kerr: I guess I have conveyed the message in a professional way that there are packets of residents who are unhappy with their Service provider.
Mark Danelon: I appreciate those comments we are working as hard as we can to try to limit and we are monitoring the momentaries.
Councillor Len Janisse: When you are talking about 100 million dollars what part is your investment.
Mark Danelon: That’s the entire regional plan.
Councillor Len Janisse : What is ELK doing? What are your upgrades what is ELK doing?
Mark Danelon: Currently we are going through the entire process to see what assets need to be replaced and what need to be refurbished. From and infrastructure stand point the health index will determine where the probability of failure where be. Transformers and poles we are investigating right now.
Councillor Len Janisse: Further to Councillor Kerr that’s his ward, I am in Puce are and we have a million squirrels through these storms and we have not have one outage so you might want to do a bit more investigating. I don’t know anybody in this area with Hydro one who has had a problem. To me this is indicative of one area having a problem. Really appreciate it if ELK does something for these residents and Councillor Kerr would be thankful as well. If I owned a company and it had a problem in one area constantly I would be looking at it with a lot more scrutiny. Just my opinion.
Councillor Kelsey Santarossa: Thank you Mark for answering many of the questions as to why. I am wondering what frequency ELK looks at outage trends to plan for strategic and capital investments and repairs in the infrst speficiall wondering what the flexbibilty is a elk to address some of those concerns
Mark Danelon: Each year we do a capital budget for repairs and maintenance. This asset condition assessment is taking it to next level to determine in year one we need to replace this many tranformers and in year two this many etc. We are currently going through this process and will have a detailed plan for the next 10-15 years.
Councillor Kelsey Santarossa : – When as a municipality can we see the asset condition
Mark Danelon: Good question not sure if the OEB sees it first. We need to analyze it first I can park it and get back to you
Councillor Kelsey Santarossa: I think it would be great for Council and administration to have that and we can take that to our residents
Deputy Mayor Bailey: I too am hoping for the timeline for the asset condition assessment. Going to ask the same question I asked Hydro One, we indeed have to send a human out to respond to click the switch. How are we determining the need for disclosures in certain areas.
Mark Danelon: At times its simply a matter of clearing the line, possibly an animal and it does take travel time. I will take the recloser issue back to operations group and get back to you.
Deputy Mayor Bailey: That was my understanding and at some time I understand there was a disclosure there and along the way someone made a decision to change that.
https://lakeshoreon.swagit.com/play/11102020-1568
