Hydro One earns 10th EEI Emergency Assistance Award

- Highly-skilled crews assisted Manitoba Power after severe snow storm -

TORONTO, Jan. 8, 2020 /CNW/ - Today, the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) presented Hydro One with an Emergency Assistance Award for its response efforts following a severe snow storm that hit Manitoba in October causing significant damage to its grid and resulting in outages affecting hundreds of thousands of customers. Hydro One deployed 25 employees to join the restoration efforts alongside crews from Manitoba Power and several other utilities.

"Our highly-skilled storm responders have a long history of safely restoring power in challenging conditions and we are always proud to help our neighbours during their time of need," said Lyla Garzouzi, Vice President of Distribution, Hydro One. "We would like to thank the Edison Electric Institute for recognizing Hydro One for our dedication, commitment and skill during a crisis."

This is the 10^th award Hydro One has received from the EEI for demonstrating its industry-leading expertise in storm restoration.

"We're pleased Hydro One has been recognized by the Edison Electric Institute for their efforts helping us restore our customers after this unprecedented storm," said Jay Grewal, President and CEO of Manitoba Hydro. "This was the largest restoration in our company's history. It required the replacement over 4,000 wood poles and stringing of about 950 kilometres of new overhead power lines. I'm very proud of our employees and thank our partners like Hydro One for the work they did under such challenging conditions to get our customers back on."

"I applaud Hydro One for responding to the request for mutual assistance and lending its expertise to aid in efficiently restoring service to customers across Manitoba impacted by this severe storm," said EEI President Tom Kuhn. "Mutual assistance is a hallmark of the electric power industry, and it is critical to helping restore power to customers following significant events."

The Emergency Assistance Award is presented to EEI member companies for outstanding emergency response efforts and assistance provided to other electric companies following severe weather or other natural events. Winners are chosen by a panel of judges following an international nomination process.

Hydro One has reciprocal agreements in place with North American utilities to provide assistance during significant power outages.

About Edison Electric Institute:

EEI is the association that represents all U.S. investor-owned electric companies. Our members provide electricity for more than 220 million Americans, and operate in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. As a whole, the electric power industry supports more than 7 million jobs in communities across the United States. In addition to our U.S. members, EEI has more than 65 international electric companies, with operations in more than 90 countries, as International Members, and hundreds of industry suppliers and related organizations as Associate Members.

About Hydro One:

Hydro One Inc. is a fully owned subsidiary of Hydro One Limited, Ontario's largest electricity transmission and distribution provider with almost 1.4 million valued customers, over $25.6 billion in assets and 2018 annual revenues of over $6.1 billion. Our team of approximately 8,600 skilled and dedicated employees proudly build and maintain a safe and reliable electricity system which is essential to supporting strong and successful communities. In 2018, Hydro One invested almost $1.6 billion in its 30,000 circuit kilometres of high-voltage transmission and 123,000 circuit kilometres of primary distribution networks and injected approximately $1.3 billion into the economy by buying goods and services in Ontario. We are committed to the communities where we live and work through community investment, sustainability and diversity initiatives. We are designated as a Sustainable Electricity Company by the Canadian Electricity Association. Hydro One Limited's common shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: H).

SOURCE Hydro One Inc.