Ben La Pianta, a speaker at the 5th marcus evans Distribution Technology & Innovation Summit, takes us through Toronto Hydro’s power restoration efforts. Interview with: Ben La Pianta, Executive Vice President, Electric Operations & Procurement, Toronto Hydro

1. How Toronto Hydro Restored Power
after the Winter Storm
We declared a level three emergency at
3am, which allowed us to schedule all
our resources until power was restored.
In addition, we relied on resources from
other utilities and our contractor
community to help us.
Interview with: Ben La Pianta,
Executive Vice President, Electric
Operations & Procurement, Toronto
Hydro
“Utilities cannot prevent an ice storm
from happening or keep power on
during a storm particularly if most of the
infrastructure is above ground, but a
thoughtful, prudent and methodical
approach does help get power back on
much sooner,” says Ben La Pianta,
Executive Vice President, Electric
Operations & Procurement, Toronto
Hydro.
La Pianta, who led the emergency
response team during the December
2013 winter storm in Toronto where
more than 300,000 customers lost
power impacting more than 1 million
people, will be speaking at the 5th
marcus
evans
Distribution
Technology & Innovation Summit in
Dallas, Texas, March 31 - April 1, 2014.
Take us through Toronto Hydro’s
power restoration efforts in the
recent storms.
Earlier in the week, we knew a warm air
mass was coming from Texas and that it
would collide with a cold air mass
coming from Northern Canada, but at
that point, it was unclear whether it
would result in freezing rain, snow or
sleet. By Saturday morning it was
confirmed that we were going to get a
considerable amount of ice build-up
over Toronto and by 9pm the freezing
rain had started. We declared a level
two emergency at 11pm and had
already accumulated over 10mm of ice
on the lines by 3am. At 5am we had lost
33 percent of the load in the City of
Toronto. Over 100 primary feeders, 47
municipal substations and 300,000
customers were out of power. More than
1.2 million people were impacted.
Our first priority was to respond to the
immediate police, fire and ambulance
calls, then addressed the priority loads,
such as hospitals and water pumping
stations. Within 48 hours, we had
reconnected all our priority loads and 75
percent of customers were reenergized.
We then restored the primary feeders
and municipal substations, reenergizing
the feeders that allowed us to restore
power to the most customers first.
Moving closer to the end, restoring
power becomes a house-by-house
operation. Ironically, electrical distribution systems are very much like the
trees that take down a system. The
substations are the roots of the tree and
the primary feeders the trunk, which are
connected to the lateral feeders, the
branches, and ultimately the leaves
which are the residents. When an ice
storm happens it picks up a tree and
shatters it into a million pieces. It all
has to be put back together again. This
requires a very methodical and logical
approach.
What steps would ensure power
gets restored sooner next time?
The problem is 36 percent of Toronto is
covered by trees, the vast majority of
them in proximity to hydro lines. The
electrical grid was there first. It was
not built in the middle of trees. We need
to look at ways to reduce the risk of
that canopy coming in contact with
power lines. Undergrounding is a partial
solution, but economically it is just not
feasible. Better technology would allow
us to know specifically which residences
are out of power and what the nature of
the equipment failure is thereby making
restoration efforts more efficient. First
generations of smart grids in the system
do not have that capability. The first
smart grids we installed are already
being replaced by systems that have
greater capabilities.
Where do you see the future of
electric power distribution?
The whole grid needs to be rebuilt.
Toronto suffers from the same
symptoms as other dense urban utilities
such as Boston, Washington and San
Diego. The electrical infrastructure is
old. If it were moved underground it
would not be subject to extreme
weather events like storms, but on the
other hand it would be subject to
flooding and extreme temperature
fluctuations – so there is no perfect
solution. We need to seriously consider
the design configuration of the system.
Do we need multiple redundancies? Do
we expand the network systems beyond
our downtown core? That could be very
expensive but may have an economic
business case for doing so.
Intelligent technologies that look ahead
and see if failures are imminent would
also be helpful to utilities. We need to
be able to isolate pockets of the grid
from each other. We should also
consider local generation as we cannot
rely on the transmission grid as the sole
source of generation.
When restoring power, what is the
most critical piece of the puzzle?
If you do not have a very accurate
integrated geo-spacial system that is
integrated to your outage management
system which is connected to a smart
meter fleet, it is difficult to restore and
manage a grid efficiently. It is like
trying to put a puzzle together in the
dark without even knowing what the
picture looks like. All these elements
must be in place. Those connection
points are not as strong as they need to
be.
The whole
grid needs
to be
rebuilt

2. About the 5th Distribution Technology & Innovation Summit
The Energy Network - marcus
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This unique forum will take place at The Westin Stonebriar, Dallas, Texas, March
31 - April 1, 2014. Offering much more than any conference, exhibition or trade
show, this exclusive meeting will bring together esteemed industry thought leaders
and solution providers to a highly focused and interactive networking event.
www.dti-summit.com
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strictly
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