Issue 84 - December 2025

Electricity Canada events: a year in review

2025 has been a busy year for Electricity Canada! From packed conferences to unforgettable networking moments, we’re looking back at the events that brought our industry together. Current Affairs sat down with Faran Mirza, Director of Business Development and Events to chat through our highlights, lessons learned and what to expect in 2026.

Hi Faran, thanks for joining us! In your 2025 highlight reel, which Electricity Canada events would be in there and why?

Where to start? We had so many firsts this year and we were really excited with the events that we did in 2025. I'll probably start with our Time to Build event. It took place this past October at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, where we brought in folks from the government relations world, along with our members and Corporate Partners. We discussed what is needed start building electricity infrastructure and how the government and our members can take advantage of this opportunity to propel economic growth.

I'd also like to mention our AMP Talks event that took place in Toronto in the historic El Mocambo. It is a venue where the Rolling Stones and Blondie and famous acts like that performed back in the day, starting in the late fifties, going up into the seventies. It’s more of a museum now, and you can still see great rock and roll artifacts. We are used to taking our folks to a boardroom or a closed office environment, so this was really cool to get out of that pattern. The format of the event itself was also really unique. We held a ‘TED Talk’ style event and gave eight corporate partners the opportunity to showcase their innovations and solutions to grid modernization in front our members in short 12-minute pitches or presentations. The members and Corporate Partners both really appreciated that bite size format.

If I was to pick a third, I would mention our drone symposium in Montreal with Hydro Quebec which I think was a first of its kind as well! This one-day symposium focused solely on drones and drone technologies and how they're being utilised to solve challenges both in the health and safety space, but in electricity technology.

What can members and corporate partners expect from Electricity Canada next year?

We’re looking at more new things, but also more of the same. We are now looking to being more creative into how we host meetings and events. We are starting to look at new venues and new spaces to host our meetings and really keep the excitement up around events. I’d like to try to keep people out of a traditional boardroom environment, as I mentioned. No matter where we are, the thing that will remain the same is keeping the connections between our members and our Corporate Partners alive, so that means giving them exclusive opportunities to meet and mingle and discuss their common issues and problems and how they're being solved.

Adding any kind of demonstrations is certainly key, and we saw that our drone symposium and Powering Partnerships as well, where we had about 10 Corporate Partner booths and eight Centre of Excellence project displays. People really enjoy walking around, seeing things physically and interacting with those subject matter experts. That is something that we'd like to do more of.

What is the most important thing you've learned this year about managing events?

I think the most important thing is member experience and Corporate Partner experience. We are making sure that is kept front of mind so that people are enjoying the event and it's conducive to a healthy networking environment. And speaking of networking, I have learned to think more out of the box and be creative in how we host networking events and get people to connect with each other. Everyone should be enjoying it and getting value out of it, but it should also be a fresh and engaging experience.

Oh, also never underestimate the power of a branded umbrella!

Fill in the blank: In 2026 I am most looking forward to _______.

Creating more memorable experiences for our entire audience, whether they're partners, members, government officials or stakeholders and creating those unique experiences where people can say, ‘Hey, that Electricity Canada event in 2026 was fantastic. We'd love to come to that again in 2027’. I’m also looking forward to hearing from our members and corporate partners and giving them more opportunities to connect with new people as well as reconnect with old colleagues.

Energizing the Economy

What will it take to energize the economy? Electricity Canada’s upcoming Powering Partnerships Summit in Vancouver, BC brings together experts from across Canada and the electricity sector to discuss just that. Current Affairs sat down with Julia Muggeridge, Vice President of Communications and Sustainability and Graeme Burk, Director of Communications at Electricity Canada to find out what guests can expect at our biggest industry event of the year.

The theme for this year's Powering Partnerships event is energising the economy. What inspired this theme and how is it relevant to what's happening in the electricity sector right now?

Graeme: The idea came from our hosts BC Hydro! I think it really works well because in the next 25 years, we're going to need to electrify the economy like we've never done before. There are all kinds of demands on the electricity system and so much infrastructure that needs to be built. There are also many obstacles in doing so. The question really is, what do we need to do to kickstart it all to energize the economy, as it were, to make it all happen?

Julia: Our CEO, Francis Bradley, always says that ‘electricity is the first billion’. Meaning, there really is no economy without electricity and that’s what should be addressed first. I think that really sums it up.

Who can we expect to see at the symposium?

Julia: The entire electricity sector will be there! Energy stakeholders, BC government and BC Hydro staff. There will be lots of Electricity Canada members representing generation technology, our Chief Financial Officers, our Sustainable Electricity members and of course corporate partners.

Graeme: We have some interesting panels and discussions. In our programming, we have a gathered some of the most senior people in health and safety talking about how to keep the electricity systems safe with a corporate partner from Engine Room. We have a panel on projects of national interest where have two Indigenous speakers, and we have someone from GT and Company joining them. Our panels are pulled together from some the best of our corporate partners, the best of our members across the country.

The one I am most looking forward to, is on the electric worldview where we have our pollster, Greg Lyle, talking to three people who are experts on electrification around the globe and can talk to efforts where they've gone through the energy transition.

Julia: Really?

Graeme: Really (laughter).

In the mix of presentations and panels, there are also some unscripted conversations that just say two CEOs, no notes, no comms, just conversation. What are you hoping the audience can learn from these energy leaders?

Julia: There is nothing more interesting than hearing the heads of two really big organizations talking about what keeps them up at night, and so we wanted to have some conversations set aside where we're hoping to experience what it’s like sitting in in their living room or at their restaurant table.

We have given them some general themes to speak to, from passing the torch for two very senior BC Hydro CEOs, resilience and the East/West grid. We're just really hoping to sit in on what a conversation between two CEOs at our board meeting would normally be. We want the audience to experience that.

Graeme already answered this, but Julia, what session are you most looking forward to?

Julia: I am most looking forward to an unscripted conversation between the CEO of SaskPower and the CEO of Manitoba Hydro because they're going to be talking about the East/West grid and what that means. These are two leaders of two Crown Corporations that are right next to each other, so they're going to be able to dig in as to why these interconnections aren't happening fast enough and what's standing in the way of a better East/West relationship.

This is a fill in the blank. We can energize our economy by _________.

Julia: Growing the grid and investing in our sector.

Graeme: Interties and making our grid East/West instead of a North/South one.

Julia: That’s your choice? (they both laugh)

Check out the agenda for Electricity Canada’s Powering Partnerships Summit on our website.

Time to Build

On October 29^th, Electricity Canada’s inaugural Ottawa based policy forum, “Time to Build” will bring together government, industry experts, leaders in the electricity sector and major stakeholders to determine what is needed to get building the next phase of Canada’s electricity grid. Current Affairs sat down with Brittany Botting, Electricity Canada’s Director of Generation to find out more.

Hi Brittany, thanks for joining us. Why hold a symposium to talk about our advocacy goals?

What we want to do is just bring together a diversity of voices to talk about what it takes to build electricity infrastructure for today. We're trying to bring together industry, government, and external stakeholders to come in and talk about the big picture issues, really focusing on this unique moment in time where the country wants to get big projects built. We want everyone to feel energized and to recognize the opportunity that’s in front of us, which is building out Canada's electricity grids to have greater energy sovereignty, to meet growing demand, to reduce economy-wide emissions and to accelerate economic development.

What are the issues that Time to Build will cover?

We're really trying to look at the opportunity that is in front of the sector right now, with a new government that wants to build and this momentum to think about economic growth in a bold way. How can we really seize this opportunity where Canadians are all talking about nation building projects? And what is a bigger or better nation building project than building out our electricity grid?

Other kinds of topics we’re going to cover are wildfire technologies, how to successfully partner with Indigenous communities on electricity projects, what it takes to meet the load growth we are seeing across the country, all sorts of stuff!

What were your goals when it came to selecting topics and speakers?

To start we have our keynote address, which is going to be Jennifer Williams, the President and CEO of Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, and she is really a pioneer in fostering collaboration interjurisdictionally. She going to speak about the Churchill Falls deal with Hydro Quebec and how that project particularly supports the broader Atlantic region becoming increasingly integrated.

We have folks from Bruce Power and OPG who are going to be able to talk to the opportunities in nuclear expansion that's happening. There are also presenters from Yukon Energy who are going to add that perspective of what it’s like having a northern isolated grid.

It’s about bringing a of diversity of industry perspectives and really focusing on
what can we communicate out to the broader stakeholder network and government. There’s lots of exciting and innovative things happening in the electricity industry, and we want to be able to share these opportunities from across the country.

If there are two things you want people attending the symposium to come away with regarding the electricity sector, what are they?

I know I keep saying this, but number one is that there is a huge opportunity here that the electricity industry really going to be propelling economic growth for the next several decades.

Secondly, I want people to feel empowered that there are solutions to some of these sticky issues that keep cropping up. We have the right competent, smart, innovative people across the industry to collaboratively address and manage the some of these existing barriers. It’s a really exciting time to think what the next phase of the grid is going to look like.

Learn more about "Time to Build" on our website.

Powering Canadian Steel

Electricity Canada and the Canadian Steel Producer’s Association upcoming report, Powering Canadian Steel identifies how our two industries can work together to support economic growth, security and resilience. Current Affairs sat down with one of the report's authors, Jay Wilson, Director of Energy Security at Electricity Canada to learn more.

Hi Jay, thank you for joining us. How did this report come together?

We were approached last year by the Canadian Steel Producers Association (CSPA) to start thinking about electrification and growth in the industry. Their members produce steel and steel products in different ways across Canada, but they all expect their industry to grow significantly over the next 10 to 15 years. Steel is an energy-intensive sector, so one of the things that was clear to them was that their industry was going to be needing a lot more electricity – 430% more by 2050 – to power that growth.

The electricity sector has a similar outlook, expecting to massively increase the amount of building and investment in new infrastructure and modernizing the grid to meet demand. It’s not just the steel sector that is going to be using more electricity in the future. So, we decided to work together on this project to understand what is needed from the electricity sector to help build the infrastructure that the steel industry needs.

This was a fascinating project to work on, in part because these two industries are a lot more intertwined than people really think. So many of the physical components that generate and deliver electricity are made in steel plants that use electricity to melt and shape that steel into useful products. And because Canada has one of the cleanest electricity systems in the world, that means steel made with electricity here is cleaner than most other steel on the market. That lower environmental footprint matters to customers who buy steel.

What are the challenges and opportunities that are facing the steel industry when it comes to electrification?

To build some of the large-scale infrastructure in the electricity sector, it takes time, and it takes a lot of investment. Large projects like a major transmission line or a hydroelectric project might be in a permitting process for 10 years, which isn’t very attractive for investors.

Needing to wait up to a decade for permission to start a piece of infrastructure means important upgrades can be delayed. This means that the overall electricity system costs can be more expensive and the construction happens slower than it should.

For a steel plant that wants to produce more clean steel, they need to work with their local utility to upgrade their service to power the new equipment. But if it takes 5-10 years to permit to upgrade the transmission line to the plant, that’s not good for the people that need the power, or for anyone who needs their electricity to be reliable and affordable.

An opportunity here is that whatever happens, or in this case, doesn’t happen, in permitting electricity projects, affects all other industries. Any industry that is looking to expand and grow is going to use more power to serve their customers better. It's kind of universal. It’s a common cause, because everybody wants the same thing. Companies want more power, they want it to be as clean, reliable and affordable as possible, and that’s what the electricity sector wants to provide. We’re on the same page.

How will the current political situation with the U.S. affect electrifying the steel industry?

Hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of goods cross the border every year, including steel and electricity. A good trade relationship is important to everyone on both sides of the border, and the tariffs we’ve seen this year have been very disruptive and added a lot of uncertainty. There’s obviously a big challenge and making progress towards a resolution on the trade is going to be critical. There’s a place for governments to step in to mitigate some of the difficulties, and we’re encouraged by some of the early shows of support for the industries.

At the end of the day, whether or not there are trade challenges, steel is a necessity and electricity is a necessity and Canadian companies that are making steel need to have access to power and to be able to expand or to produce the kind of steel that customers need.

What was one thing you learned about the steel industry from working on this report?

Last fall, I got to visit the Algoma Steel plant in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. It was an eye-opening experience getting to see first-hand the different ways that steel can be made and turned into products.

We took a tour of the facility they were building where the new electric arc furnaces were to be housed. Seeing up close the scale and size of the facility, the equipment, and the infrastructure that brings the raw materials and the energy to where it’s needed was fascinating. There’s so much skill and expertise on display everywhere at a site like that, and watching these machines maneuver and transform a massive slab of red-hot metal into sheets and rods in a matter seconds is something I’ll never forget.

Tune in to episode 118 of the Flux Capacitor podcast for an exclusive interview with the Canadian Steel Producers Association’s President and CEO, Catherine Cobden.

Distribution Reliability

Electricity Canada’s Distribution Reliability Committee recently released their annual report breaking down the data of power interruptions in 2024. The report identifies the duration time of the average interruption, to the frequency of them happening and much more! Current Affairs sat down with Dan Gent, Director of Transmission and Reliability to learn how this affects customers.

Hi Dan, thanks for joining us! What does the reliability data in this report get used for?

When I think about it, it’s like it's a benchmarking report. Any utility can take a look at the report and identify how they're comparing in against all the participants in the Distribution Reliability Committee at Electricity Canada. Through this report you can identify the biggest contributors of an outage per company.

If you can identify what is causing the most outages (trees, weather, animals etc.), you can identify where you want to put your resources. The report provides proof of increasing trends, and it gives utilities justification to increase their investments in capital planning for their rate filing.

Describe the national indicators and what they mean?

There are many national indicators, but I will touch on the most popular ones, SAIDI and SAIFI. These are global industry standards so if you go to France, Brazil, Germany – they all measure system performance in this way. They’re also used by governments and regulators to determine how well the electricity system is preforming.

SAIDI stands for System Average Interruption Duration Index, which is the amount of time in minutes the average customer has been without power.

SAIFI stands for the System Average Interruption Frequency, so it measures the amount of times customers have been without power.

To get the whole picture we can calculate the Customer Average Interruption Duration Index which is CAIDI. This looks at on a national level, how many hours the average customer has been out individually.

What are some fun facts that have come out from this year’s report?

For the past several years, trees have been in the number one contributor for power interruptions. They are the biggest contributor in terms of outage duration at 33% in 2024.
If a tree falls on a line, it is an issue around safety because you have to shut off the power line and make sure the area is safe so the utility can remove it. You’re also taking into consideration debris from the tree, things the tree has hit on the way down and assess any trees that might have fallen or be on the verge of falling. And it’s not just big storms that cause this, branches can also fall on blue sky days. It’s a bit longer of a process to put that line back up and reconnect the power.

Also in 2024, 15% of outages were related to equipment failure. What's happening on a regular basis now is that high winds or ice storms are coming through more frequently, and that causes wear and tear on the infrastructure and equipment. I mean, how often can a distribution line or a pole withstand 120-kilometre winds until it breaks? How often can the power lines hold 2 tonnes of ice before it snaps? You could maybe survive the first time, but after three times, maybe not so much.

The data shows that we need to think about the age of some of the equipment and the wear and tear it is getting on a yearly basis.

If the reliability of the grid calculated as 99.9286%, how can some people be out of power for weeks and some minutes?

Well, the reliability index is a calculation based on the entire population. So you total up the amount of hours of outages and the amount of hours that people are connected to the grid.

You’re connected to the grid 8760 hours a year, but you might experience an outage for a month. Then you’re calculating the 720 hours in the month divided by 8760 which is actually less than 10%. When you flip it around, your availability or connected reliability to the grid is actually about 92%.

It’s the ENTIRE population and EVERY outage whether it’s a minute or a week out of 8760 hours. It’s a big impact to the individual customer obviously, but from the availability of the system perspective, it’s so small.

Every Line is Important – Celebrate National Lineworker Appreciation Day!

Every year on July 10^th, Electricity Canada honours lineworkers across Canada who work tirelessly to keep electricity flowing into our homes, schools, hospitals, and businesses. These highly trained men and women install and maintain the electricity grid across the country, and repair essential infrastructure to keep the lights on. Current Affairs sat down with Fatima Khan, Graphic Designer at Electricity Canada for more details on the “Every line is important” social campaign.

Hi Fatima, thanks for joining us! Tell us a little but about National Lineworker Appreciation Day and why it’s important.

National Lineworker Appreciation Day is celebrated by Electricity Canada every year on July 10th. It recognizes the dedication and hard work of lineworkers across Canada who ensure that electricity continues to power our everyday life. These men and women often work in hazardous environments and in extreme weather conditions. Not only do they need to focus on restoring power, but also how to work safely and efficiently as a team. I believe it's important that we show our gratitude and respect for their central role in our electricity sector.

Why the tagline, “Every line is important” and how did you come up with it?

The tagline came about when I was brainstorming ideas to pitch for last year's social media campaign. I took an illustrative approach the previous year and wanted stick with that style. To change it up, I decided to include some animation rather than making a static post to make it more interactive and interesting.

One of my concepts was to create line art of lineworkers and as I looked through some ideas of different ways to illustrate these, I thought, why not create the illustration from one continuous line but then also animate it, so that our audience can see the visual from start to finish.

That’s where “Every line is important” came from. The message is, if any utility line is cut, it can mean people and important social services are without power and lineworkers do everything they can keep the lines together.

What type of content can people expect to see on our social media channels for the campaign this year, and how is Electricity Canada getting our members involved?

The type of content people can expect to see on our social media channels (LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram) for this year's campaign is the same beautiful line art and animations we created last year. Two out of four of the illustrations that we posted were photos provided by our member companies. Because of the positive feedback that we received, this year we reached out to our members and asked them to submit photos of their utility workers that they would like to see illustrated –whether it's lineworkers on a utility pole, bucket, trucks, transmission tower or a photo of a crew. We want to represent as many of our members as we can through this campaign and show our audience the people behind the scenes that make up the electricity sector.

We heard rumours about a lineworker activity book! Tell us about that!

Yes! Alongside the illustrations and animations, we wanted another creative idea on how we could use them. Julia, our Vice President of Communications, came up with the idea to present it as an activity book. Throughout the book, you'll have colouring pages, crossword puzzles, word searches, connect the dots…all relating to the theme of National Lineworker Appreciation Day. We’re going to print these booklets and send them to our members and provide them with the digital files that they can also share with colleagues, friends and family members. It's a creative project to connect with younger generations to get them inspired about the industry that powers their world.

Current Affairs

Electricity Canada events: a year in review

Other Stories

Energizing the Economy

Other Stories

Time to Build

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Powering Canadian Steel

Other Stories

Distribution Reliability

Other Stories

Every Line is Important – Celebrate National Lineworker Appreciation Day!

Other Stories

Electricity Canada events: a year in review

Other Stories

Energizing the Economy

Other Stories

Time to Build

Other Stories

Powering Canadian Steel

Other Stories

Distribution Reliability

Other Stories

Every Line is Important – Celebrate National Lineworker Appreciation Day!

Other Stories

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