◊ This is part of the ‘history’ series of articles ◊
One of the most significant accomplishments of The Hydro-Electric Power Commission (the Commission) was the electrification of rural Ontario. The first rural customers were reported to have been connected in 1912, however, the cost was prohibitively high and the roll-out was slow. During the first 10 years of rural expansion, most lines were provided as extensions from existing municipal urban systems.
Rural customers included farms, hamlets, and rural residential
The “The Rural Hydro-Electric Distribution Act” of 1921 was intended to accelerate rural electrification. The government provided a 50% grant for the cost of the initial capital investment in rural infrastructure. Rural power districts were formed whose boundaries were determined by the economic distance that could be serviced from distribution centres.
In 1928 the average farm service rate was 5.18 cents per kWh while the municipal rate was 1.9 cents
source HEPCO Annual Reports
By the end of 1926, the Commission had built 5,000 km of rural lines servicing 25,283 customers with an investment of $6.7 million (dollars of the day) for which the provincial government paid half. Over the next 10 years, the rural lines expanded to 21,000 km servicing 86,194 customers from $30 million (dollars of the day) of investment.
$30 million in 1936 is the equivalent of $579 million in 2021 according to the Bank of Canada Inflation Calculator
The Commission initially provided service to farm customers on the basis of a minimum density of three for every 1.6 km (one mile) but revised it in 1938 to two farms for every 1.6 km. In 1939 the Commission was committing half of its capital budget of $9.1 million (dollars of the day) on rural system development.
The war years
The war effort stalled the rural expansion of lines as materials and resources were redirected to the military effort. In 1941 a Dominion Census determined that there were approximately 178,000 farms in Ontario with only 35% of them having electricity.
In 1941 the average farm service rate was 2.51 cents per kwh while the municipal rate was 1.5 cents
source HEPCO Annual Reports
In 1944 The Commission amalgamated all rural service into a single division for administration. A uniform rate structure was established with a common rate for each class of service. This was supported through the province’s financial assistance for agriculture. The government-subsidized any operating losses by the Commission for rural services.
Post-war
In 1946, rural electricity development was jump-started when the Commission approved a 5-year development plan. The Commission reported that by 1950 it had expanded rural service to 67% of farms based on the 1941 census numbers. Using electricity, farms had the capability of refrigeration (for milk), automatic control of temperature, humidity, and ventilation (poultry).
Image HEPCO 1950 Annual Report – full-size image here
At the end of 1958, a total of 472,603 rural customers were being served by over 74,300 km of primary distribution lines. Farm service customers represented 29.7% of the total number served while hamlet and rural residential service represented 43.9% and summer service 18.1%.
Modern times
Over time, some of the rural service was absorbed by urban development and the expansion of municipalities. Today, 98% of rural Ontario is served by Hydro One. Based on the Hydro One Low Density (R2) class there are 332,000 rural customers, making up 7% of the 5 million Ontario customers (2020). Ontario’s service territory area of 991,000 square kilometers is 99% rural and 1% urban.
The breakup of Ontario Hydro in 1999 resulted in the separation of energy and delivery costs. Rural and urban customers pay the same amount for energy, however, the delivery costs are much different. Delivery costs are influenced by many factors related to the infrastructure lifecycle. Customer density will always have an inversely proportional impact on delivery rates, making rural delivery more expensive. Rural customers receive subsidies as required by statutes such as Ontario Regulation 442/01: “RURAL OR REMOTE ELECTRICITY RATE PROTECTION”. The Ontario Energy Board and Local Distribution Companies will have the latest information on applicable subsidies.
The challenges of rural electrical distribution
Rural electrical service faces unique economic, engineering, operating, and maintenance challenges. Most rural distribution is characterized by long, lightly loaded overhead radial feeds with low customer density. Distribution lines are expensive to install and maintain. Costs are typically borne by the customers who receive the service. When customer density is low, the cost of service per customer is higher than in more densely populated areas.
Overhead feeders are susceptible to outages due to tree contact and extreme weather. Reliability decreases as feeder length increases. Outage response times increase with feeder length because of proximity to service centres and the logistics of locating faults.
Voltage regulation and stray ground currents pose technical and safety issues to be managed. The addition of generators on rural feeds further complicates the system.
The large service territory in rural Ontario poses challenges for operating due to the distances involved and the wide range of seasonal conditions which can be encountered in northern climates.
Each of the challenges has its own solutions which must be managed by balancing cost and quality of service. The unfortunate reality is that rural service will always be more costly and vulnerable to performance issues than higher-density urban service.
Further reading
Keith Robson Fleming has written extensively about the subject in his book “Power at Cost: Ontario Hydro and Rural Electrification, 1911-1958”. A digitized version of his 1988 Ph.D. Theses on the subject is available from Western University here.
Derek
