Wellington North council has approved the recommendation of Wellington North Power Inc. (WNP) to borrow up to $1.5 million from Infrastructure Ontario to finance the construction of a second power line to Mount Forest.
WNP asked for approval of the loan during the Nov. 25 administration and finance committee meeting and council considered the request at its Dec. 7 meeting.
Richard Bucknall, CAO of WNP, explained to the committee on Nov. 25 that the current line feeder servicing Mount Forest from Hanover has reached its maximum supply capacity.
Bucknall went on to say upstream power outages affect Mount Forest and there is no back-up or alternative supply available to the town for long outages.
“Longer outages, especially during winter weather periods, pose safety and economical risks for the community,” states the WNP report to the committee. “To reduce these risks, critical loads such as hospitals, warming centres and sensitive industrial customers should have back-feed supply options available.”
WNP recommended building an 11km line connecting Mount Forest to a feeder from Palmerston at an estimated cost of $2.4 million based on 2014 construction. WNP is responsible for 50 per cent of the cost, with Hydro One covering the other half.
WNP is seeking rate increases to recover construction costs.
WNP has asked the Ontario Energy Board to approve an increase of $2.50 each month for the typical residential customer, beginning on May 1.
Earlier this year Wellington North Township, which owns 97% of WNP (neighbouring Southgate Township owns the remaining 3%), supported the proposal for a new line in a letter to the Ontario Energy Board.
Mayor Andy Lennox repeated the support on Dec. 7.
“I think it’s important we endorse this project to having a second line feed into Mount Forest; (it) will help with reliability and also allow Wellington North Power to be able to service if we have any growth opportunities,” he said.
If approved, construction of the new line is expected to begin in 2016.
