It takes a certain kind of person to embrace front-line work for an electrical utility. And you don’t always know in advance if you’re going to be that person. Destiny spoke to Tim Stratichuk on his 63rd day at ENWIN. Working as an electrician/journeyman, he knew very little about the company or the sector when a catastrophic ice storm hit Windsor, toppling trees and powerlines, and damaging infrastructure on a broad scale. Within hours, Tim was part of a crew – on the job for days – with no thought of going home until the work was complete and the power restored. Tim describes those days as pandemonium. For him, they were a game changer. “Boy, did I learn fast,” he acknowledges. “You can’t teach that – It’s something you have to live through to understand. The storm happened, and boom, I wanted to stay…. It made my career.” Before the storm, Tim considered ENWIN just a brief stop in his life. He remembers betting some of ...

This week the EDA was excited to release the digital version of the latest issue of The Distributor magazine. It includes feature articles on each of this year’s EDA award winners, who were honoured at the February gala. This year the EDA Local Distribution Company Performance Excellence Award, was awarded to Essex Powerlines for accomplishments that included prioritization of the necessary conversion work to simplify its distribution system, reduce inventory, and more. The Communications Excellence Award was presented to Halton Hills Hydro for engaging customers from the outset in its latest Cost of Service rate application, using an innovative approach. It launched an interactive customer engagement website, to inform and collaborate with customers in preparation for the filing. The Customer Service Excellence award was presented to PUC Distribution (Sault Ste. Marie). PUC identified the Ontario government’s AffordAbility Fund Trust program as an effective way to support its custome ...