It was -15°C in Dallas on Family Day. Spot prices for electricity in Texas jumped 3.466 per cent and more than five million people across the region suffered power outages due to surging demand. The Southwest Power Pool told its members across 14 states to begin controlled outages as demand exceeded supply. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas declared an "energy emergency alert three" after the grid experienced a systemwide failure because the extreme winter weather forced generating units to trip and go offline. Regional utilities experienced outages that lasted for hours. This is what a climate-related risk looks like if you are a utility company or grid operator. Ontario Local Distribution Companies (LDCs) are fortunately investing in grid hardening initiatives such as pole replacement, strengthening and burying power lines, technologies like synchophasors, and operational strategies like load shedding. But efforts intended merely to harden infrastructure are not enough ...

This week, the Electricity Distributors Association was excited to release the digital version of the latest issue of The Distributor magazine. The theme for this issue is local hydro needs modern and flexible regulation and in it we explore whether regulation will enable or inhibit electrification as well as the value versus cost in getting the regulatory balance right.   The issue’s feature articles include Hydro One looking behind the meter for reliability improvement; London Hydro & Sidewalk Labs’ energy management solution where customers get a home scheduler, new hourly rate plan, predictable bill, and access to clean energy; plus, a summary of an EDIST session on integrated voltage management and conservation benefits from Jacob Weninger of Entegrus Powerlines.   Modern and Flexible Utility Regulation Benefits Everyone Local utility companies in Ontario – like all energy distribution companies across the country – are tightly regulated busine ...