Tourism Winnipeg

Powering successfully through a pandemic MANITOBA HYDRO Working in a community-minded city like Winnipeg has its advantages, especially when a pandemic changes things almost overnight for a large-scale power utility like Manitoba Hydro. "Operating in a city like Winnipeg means we're connected to our customers in a way that would be impossible in many other places. We employ about 5,200 people throughout the province, many in Winnipeg; the huge network of people who know a Manitoba Hydro employee means we have many different channels to get feedback from our customers," says Scott Powell, Director of Corporate Communications. Manitoba Hydro serves almost 587,000 electric customers across the province and 285,000 natural gas customers in southern Manitoba. It was fortunate to have a head start in dealing with COVID-19 thanks to previous pandemic planning. "Manitoba Hydro developed pandemic plans after the H1N1 crisis a few years ago, and those plans helped guide our response to the novel coronavirus pandemic. We were able to quickly implement work-from-home strategies for office staff and safe work procedures for our crews in the field to keep our employees and the communities we serve safe," says Powell. The crown utility's previous experience with remote work technology was also a major benefit. Many of its field staff are now dispatched directly using the corporation's mobile workforce management system. "Prior to the pandemic we had between 50 to 75 office employees logging into servers remotely — as of July, it was between 2,400 and 2,500. It took a massive effort from many departments to make this possible, but especially our IT department. Thanks to their expertise, we were able to roll out secure network access to thousands of employees within the space of a week." That kind of preparedness meant Manitoba Hydro was able to minimize impacts of the pandemic on customers, service and employees and helped drive confidence in the reliability of the utility. "We're proud to say all our employees are also customers, and that helps keep our ear to the ground about what people think of us and how we can improve. Any challenge can be an opportunity for growth, and given how spread apart our customers and staff are, the pandemic has provided an opportunity to see what aspects of remote work and new technologies might help improve the efficiency of our operations going forward," adds Powell. Looking ahead to 2021, Manitoba Hydro will see additional units at the $8.7 billion Keeyask Generating Station come online. The renewable energy project, located on the lower Nelson River in northern Manitoba, is being developed by the Keeyask Hydropower Limited Partnership, a joint venture between four northern First Nations – Fox Lake Cree Nation, Tataskweyak Cree Nation, War Lake First Nation, York Factory First Nation — and Manitoba Hydro. The new Birtle-Tantallon transmission line is also expected to be in operation shortly. This 230 kilovolt transmission line is being built to help fulfill a 30- year agreement to sell renewable hydroelectricity to Saskatchewan. "Over the coming months we will also be finalizing and starting to implement our new long-term strategic plan. We Courtesy of Manitoba Hydro 28 TH E WINNIPEG INVE STOR

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