Toronto Hydro attending mutual aid conference ahead of storm season

Electrical utilities from the North Atlantic are meeting in Pittsburgh

TORONTO, Oct. 18, 2017 /CNW/ - Severe weather events like Hurricane Irma are on everyone's minds as the North Atlantic Mutual Assistance Group (NAMAG) holds its 2017 Fall Conference.

Members of Toronto Hydro's emergency management team are in Pittsburgh for the conference, which brings together utilities from provinces and states along the northeast that have formally agreed to provide assistance to each other during emergencies, such as severe storms.

Over the next two days, NAMAG members will work on strengthening mutual aid processes through panel discussions, presentations and reviews. Topics include customer communications during outages, resourcing levels and mutual assistance best practices.

This year's event is co-hosted by Duquesne Light Company (DLC) and FirstEnergy. DLC supplies electricity to 600,000 customers in Allegheny and Beaver counties in Pennsylvania and FirstEnergy's ownership of 10 regulated distribution companies forms one of America's largest investor-owned electric systems, and serves six million customers in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions.

QUICK FACTS

• The NAMAG conference was hosted by Toronto Hydro in 2015
• NAMAG is a consortium of 26 utilities from across the North Atlantic that have signed an agreement to share resources during an emergency, like the 2013 ice storm, tropical storms, hurricanes, and other disasters
• Through NAMAG, Toronto Hydro was able to send 27 employees to assist with power restoration in Tampa, Florida following Hurricane Irma in September
• Utilities attending the NAMAG Conference include Alectra, Hydro One, Hydro Quebec, New Brunswick Power, Eversource Energy, ConEd, National Grid, PEPCO Holdings and Public Service Electric & Gas Company

QUOTES

"Hurricane Irma recently showed how important mutual assistance can be during times of natural disasters. Attending this conference helps us to improve our responses to widespread outages and solidifies relationships, ensuring we're taking care of each other during times of need."
-  John Borowitz, General Manager, Distribution Grid Operations and Emergency Management, Toronto Hydro 

ABOUT TORONTO HYDRO

Toronto Hydro owns and operates an electricity distribution system, which delivers electricity to approximately 765,000 customers located in the city of Toronto. It is the largest municipal electricity distribution company in Canada and distributes approximately 19% of the electricity consumed in the province of Ontario.

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SOURCE Toronto Hydro Corporation