ESA (Electrical Safety Authority) and its forebears – Ontario Hydro, and before that, the Hydro Electric Power Commission – have played a significant role in the.
Ontario HydroIndustryElectrical generation, distributionFateBroken into five separate businessesSuccessor,Founded1906Defunct1999Headquarters,Ontario Hydro, established in 1906 as the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, was a publicly owned electricity utility in the Province of. It was formed to build transmission lines to supply municipal utilities with electricity generated by private companies already operating at, and soon developed its own generation resources by buying private generation stations and becoming a major designer and builder of new stations. As most of the readily developed sites became exploited, the corporation expanded into building -fired generation and then facilities.
Renamed as 'Ontario Hydro' in 1974, by the 1990s it had become one of the largest, fully integrated corporations in North America. Contents.Origins The notion of generating electric power on the was first entertained in 1888, when the solicited proposals for the construction of an electric scenic railway from to.
The was granted the privilege in 1892, and by 1900 it was using a dynamo of 200,000 horsepower (150,000 kW) which was the largest in Canada. Starting in 1899, several private syndicates sought privileges from the commission for generating power for sale, including:. the, backed by British investors. the, backed by American investors. the, backed by the and the (controlled by, and )By 1900, a total capacity of 400,000 horsepower (300,000 kW) was in development at Niagara, and concern was expressed as to whether such natural resources were being best exploited for the public welfare.
In June 1902, an informal convention was held at, (now Kitchener) which commissioned a report by Daniel B. Detweiler, Elias W.B. Snider and F.S. Spence, who recommended in February 1903 that authority be sought from the Ontario Legislature to allow municipal councils to organize a cooperative to develop, transmit, buy and sell electrical energy. The provincial government of refused to allow this, and it was only after its loss in the that work began on creating a public utility.
During that election campaign, (who would become Premier) declared:“The water power of Niagara should be as free as the air.”Creation of Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario. Extent of Hydro's generating and transmission network (1919)In May 1906, the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario ('Hydro' or 'HEPCO') was formed and its first commissioners were, and Cecil B.
Smith, HEPCO was a unique hybrid of a government department, crown corporation and municipal cooperative that coexisted with the existing private companies. It was a 'politically rational' rather than a 'technically efficient' solution that depended on the watershed election of 1905.On January 1, 1907, referendums in Toronto and 18 other municipalities approved the provisional contracts that their councils had concluded with HEPC, and subsequent referendums one year later authorized utility bond issues for the construction of local distribution systems. The victories in Toronto were in large part due to the leadership and commitment of Adam Beck's ally,. The first transmission lines began providing power to southwestern Ontario in 1910. In 1926, the gave its approval for to develop the, the largest such development since the, in preference to incurring more debt for Ontario Hydro.
The development was encouraged through secret commitments for long-term purchases of electricity and indemnification of Hydro against any losses. Questions were asked at the time as to how the additional 100,000 horsepower (75,000 kW) in capacity would be used, as there were virtually no customers for it. When Abitibi was placed in in 1932, legislation was passed over the following years to allow Ontario Hydro to take control of several Abitibi power developments. Certain dealings relating to the 1933 acquisition came to be known as the 'great Abitibi swindle,' which resulted in the fall of the in the, to be succeeded by that of.In 1939, the commission was given authority to regulate all other electricity generators, thus bringing all private utilities in the province under its supervision. It also received authority to acquire any utility that was not producing at its capacity.In 1948, HEPCO changed most of its system from 25 Hz to 60 Hz.
However, the Fort Erie area south of Niagara Falls stayed on the remaining 25 Hz generators until 1966, and this area had electricity throughout the.By the 1950s the commission was operating as a single integrated system. As demand rose in the post-war period, Ontario Hydro started expanding its generation system bringing on line many new hydroelectric stations. In 1953, Ontario Hydro began to interconnect with other utilities, the first interconnection being the Keith-Waterman line in which crosses the to interconnecting with in the. This line was originally constructed at 120,000 volts and was later upgraded to 230,000 volts in 1973. Shortly thereafter, other interconnections with were built. The first coal-fired generating stations in the system were also built in this period.
The expansion of coal continued during the 1960s and 1970s but was overtaken by the development of nuclear power.Hydro-Electric Railways. Main article:In 1912, Adam Beck began to promote the creation and operation of electric interurban railways in the territory served by the commission, and the Legislative Assembly granted authority to do so in The Hydro-Electric Railway Act, 1914. Changes in government policy and public sentiment in the 1920s restricted their development, and all such operations ceased in the 1930s (with the exception of the streetcar system, which continued until 1946).
Expansion In the 1960s, HEPCO was the first utility in North America to utilize ultra-high voltage transmission lines. Planning for the UHV lines began in 1960 and in 1967, HEPCO put into service transmission lines carrying 500,000 volts that carry power from hydroelectric sources in remote to high load areas in southern Ontario such as,. By 1970 all but the most remote municipal power systems in Ontario were organized into a single grid. The nuclear generating station.In the late 1950s, the corporation became involved in development, design and construction of stations.In 1965, the first commercial sized station came on line at.During the 1960s and 1970s, Ontario Hydro's nuclear generating program expanded with the building of the first four units of the followed by stations at and a second four units at Pickering. Toronto:. Reginald Pelham Bolton (1913).
New York:. Boothman, Barry E.C. Annual Conference of the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada. Archived from (PDF) on 2014-11-12.
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'The Ontario Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario'. Journal of the Royal Society of Arts. 77 (4013): 1115–1130. Jamie Swift; Keith Stewart (2004).See also.Notes., p. 32., pp. 34–36., p. 37., pp. 42–44., p. 37., S.O. 15., p. 61. Neil Freeman (1992).
'Turn-of-the-Century State Intervention: Creating the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, 1906'. Ontario History. 84 (3): 171–194., p. 44., p. 45–46. Catherine Slaney (2003). Toronto: Natural Heritage/Natural History. Pender, Terry (October 10, 2010). Metroland Media Group Ltd.
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57, which renamed the Power Commission Act as the Power Corporation Act. 18 March 1922.
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(PDF). Ontario Hydro. March 31, 1999. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
Stranded debt has been determined, on a preliminary basis, by assigning fair values to OPG, OHSC, and the IMO, and subtracting these values from Ontario Hydro’s total debt and liabilities. Ministry of Finance - Province of Ontario.
Retrieved 13 September 2016. (PDF). Ontario Hydro. March 31, 1999. Retrieved 15 September 2016. Stranded debt has been determined, on a preliminary basis, by assigning fair values to OPG, OHSC, and the IMO, and subtracting these values from Ontario Hydro’s total debt and liabilities. Keith Leslie (April 5, 2015).
Toronto Star. Retrieved 13 September 2016. John Spears (December 28, 2011). (PDF). Office of the Provincial Auditor (Ontario). Retrieved 13 September 2016.
Ministry of Finance - Province of Ontario. Retrieved 13 September 2016. ^. Ontario Electricity Financial Corporation.
Retrieved 13 September 2016.External links.