Working hard to stay among the best for reliability

A look at where Saint John Energy fits within a cross-Canada comparison of electrical utilities

By Ryan Shonaman, October 26, 2023

A recent story in the Globe & Mail caught my attention.

“How reliable is your electric utility?” the headline asked, and the story below it consumed a full page.

*How reliable is your electric utility?, The Globe and Mail, October 11, 2023*

Complete with charts, it leveraged industry data from across Canada to illustrate how utilities are faring in providing dependable service to their customers. The chart gave a snapshot of how the utilities perform both in terms of the frequency of outages and the typical duration of those outages.

Fascinating reading for me. As Executive Director of Operations for Saint John Energy, and in my 20 years with the company working on the front lines with our line crews, it was interesting to see how others across the country are doing on these measures.

Saint John Energy was not included in the story – the paper’s focus was on provincial utilities and larger cities.

But if the Globe had included our data, we would have featured among the best in the comparison.

Why?

Proactive measures

Because we have long been focused on doing all that we can to prevent outages from happening and to move swiftly to restore power when the lights do go out.

To prevent outages, we conduct regular inspections of lines and transformers and replace them before failures cause trouble on the system. We cover our conductors and install animal guards to keep pests from shorting lines or damaging equipment.

If the Globe had included our data, we would have featured among the best in the comparison.

We invest in tree trimming to keep branches away from lines.

These and many other proactive measures are wise investments in preventing costly outages.

And when the power does go out because of storms, accidents or any other reason, thanks to our smart grid and other leading technology we can often diagnose the issue and reroute or restore power right from our control center.

Dedicated crews

If we do have to dispatch a crew, we have the hardworking and dedicated members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1524 to respond. They have always taken great pride in doing the right job for our customers in restoring service as quickly as possible.

Reliability will be central to our Zero30 work and the plans we undertake toward a cleaner energy future.

We know that all of this will only become increasingly important as we move to a future where more people rely increasingly on electricity because it is a clean alternative to fossil fuels.

At Saint John Energy, our vision is to be a national leader among electrical utilities in reaching net-zero emissions.

That’s why we have launched Zero30, an initiative to map out how Saint John Energy will reach net zero in its own emissions by 2030 and help customers do the same should they choose. The key pillars of Zero30 are exploring how to develop a cleaner energy supply, innovating to help our customers and planning to meet that future demand.

Reliability will be central to that work and the plans we undertake toward a cleaner energy future.

Industry data

So what did the Globe & Mail find? It gathered industry data known as the System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI) and System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI) for more than a dozen of the larger utilities across the country and reported on the five-year average of both.

According to the Globe, customers experienced interruptions or outages over the span of a year that totalled anywhere from 18.24 (or nearly 18 hours and 15 minutes) in Newfoundland and Labrador to 0.5 (a half an hour) in Calgary.

For Saint John Energy, the average annual outage time between 2018 and 2022 is 1.26, or 76 minutes – that includes factors beyond our control, such as storms or loss of power supply from NB Power.

If you remove those, our annual outage time over that period averages 0.89, or a little more than 53 minutes.

Many different factors

And on frequency, the Globe reports anywhere from more than five outages in Newfoundland and Labrador to 0.67 in Calgary.

Here in Saint John, that average annual frequency is 0.86 – or 0.62 when the factors beyond our control are removed.

Of course, as the Globe acknowledges, there are many different factors that influence where a utility would rank, including geography and the size of the territory they cover along with how they prioritize infrastructure investments.

“Reliability stats from city utilities like Toronto Hydro and Calgary’s Enmax Corp. are invariably superior to utilities that serve entire provinces,” it says.

“Studies have found a direct relationship between reliability and circuit length: unsurprisingly, longer circuits suffer more interruptions. Utilities that have large amounts of infrastructure in remote or mountainous terrain may face greater maintenance challenges, including restoring power after extreme events.”

Great pride

Very true. Regardless of the issues at play, we pay close attention to how Saint John Energy is performing for our customers. We take great pride in our long history of being one of the most reliable utilities in Canada.

In 2022, the national score for reliability was 61 per cent versus 80 per cent for Saint John Energy.

Every year, Electricity Canada conducts a national customer attitude survey and we consistently rank well above national averages on reliability. In 2022, the national score for reliability was 61 per cent versus 80 per cent for Saint John Energy.

When we had a run of several outages earlier this year, people took notice because it was so out of character for us.

Some of those outages were related to a loss of supply from NB Power, and we continue to work closely with our colleagues at the provincial utility to help them identify problems and find solutions.

When outages are related to our equipment, as sometimes happens, we move quickly to repair and then do what we can do to prevent future issues.

Safety paramount

And, of course, in storms we respond as quickly as we can while ensuring safety remains paramount. Whenever we can, Saint John Energy crews also support restoration efforts elsewhere in New Brunswick and in other provinces and states hit by adverse weather.

We know the trust and reputation we enjoy is not something to take for granted. That’s why we work hard every day to uphold the excellent service the people of Saint John expect.

The full Globe article, for those who are interested, is available online.