Reliability
Enova works every day to provide power you can rely on. Building on more than 100 years of experience, Enova combines the expertise of two highly skilled operations departments to provide exceptional reliability and dependability.
Enova’s capital projects and maintenance work focuses on enhancing reliability, powering growing communities, and decreasing the length and severity of unplanned outages through the replacement of end-of-life and damaged equipment. Our forestry crews and contractors conduct annual tree trimming cycles to ensure branches and foliage are trimmed away from powerlines and electrical equipment for reliability and safety reasons.
Thanks to our commitment to improving reliability, Enova customers overall experienced fewer and shorter unplanned outages across our service territory. The average length of a power interruption was 62 minutes in 2022.
System automation has also improved system performance. Enova’s Fault Location Isolation and Service Restoration (FLISR) technology led to a more than 30 percent decrease in Customer Minutes of Interruption for customers in Waterloo, Woolwich and Wellesley in 2022, resulting in more than 2 million minutes of customer interruption saved. All Waterloo, Woolwich and Wellesley customers are on FLISR-enabled feeders. Further automation efforts will continue across Enova’s entire service territory.
44,000
poles across our service territory
3,665
kilometres of underground and overhead powerlines
62 minutes
average length of a power interruption for Enova customers
17%
of Enova customers in Enova’s service territory experienced outages during the storm.
90%
of impacted customers had power restored within 11 hours.
132 km/h
wind gusts reported during the rare storm.
Working together to get the lights on
A rare derecho windstorm, with gusts of more than 132 km/h, swept through the Waterloo region around 12 pm on May 21. The storm caused widespread outages and knocked out power to more than 28,000 customers across Enova’s service territory.
The storm caused extensive damage. Trees fell on overhead power lines, poles were broken and transformers needed to be replaced interrupting power to customers during the short, but intense, windstorm.
Crews from both Enova offices worked tirelessly to make repairs through the long weekend.
Legacy Waterloo North Hydro and Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro crews worked together to restore power to more than 90% of the 28,000 customers within 11 hours of the first reported outage.
Enova’s communications team kept customers up-to-date throughout the outage. Social media messaging, website updates and interactive outage maps informed customers of estimated restoration times and provided vital safety information.
The May Derecho offered customers an opportunity to see Enova’s two offices work together to restore power safely and efficiently. This is a commitment that will carry forward into the future.
