Hydro One investing in Georgian Bay area

STAYNER, ONTARIO - The lights might be staying on longer and more reliably thanks to Hydro One being wired.

“Hydro One is investing approximately $8 million in infrastructure improvements to its power distribution system between Blue Mountain and Stayner this fall, as part of its overall plan to increase capacity to the Southern Georgian Bay area,” the company stated in a media release. “Planned work involves pole replacement and line stringing. The project will benefit the towns of Collingwood and The Blue Mountains, and expand capacity for the entire region, including the area's ski hill developments.”

In recent years, the Georgian Triangle area has seen its share of power outages and blackouts, including the toppling of several towers and lines near Stayner in a major windstorm in 2008.

"This project will improve reliability both to the towns and the ski resorts and to all our residential and commercial customers in the area, and support the region's ability to grow without service or supply issues," said Laurie Skinner, Georgian Bay Area Superintendent for Hydro One.

"Our investments in Collingwood and The Blue Mountains this year, together with the work completed last year in the Stayner area and our planned work for Wasaga Beach all reflect Hydro One's commitment to investing in our system and providing a high level of service to our customers."

The first phase of the project was finished last year, when a 115kV transmission line from Barrie to Stayner was replaced by a higher capacity transmission tower line.

The corporation said the work represented a local investment of more than $4 million. In addition to this year's work in the Collingwood and Blue Mountains area, a final phase of the upgrade will see the installation of a new 44,000 volt pole line in the Town of Wasaga Beach by 2011, representing a distribution network upgrade investment of approximately $2.7 million.