Elexicon Annual Reports

In the fall, Elexicon Energy launched a new price plan to provide customers with more choice when it comes to their electricity bill. The Ultra-Low Overnight (“ULO”) price plan, announced by the Ontario government in April, gave energy companies a deadline of November 1, 2023 to implement the new price plan.

Elexicon’s Customer Care team worked fast and efficiently to transform its processes and systems required to launch the new pricing. Known as “Customer Choice”, the plan provides a third option for residential and small business customers, in addition to the existing Time-of-Use and Tiered plans. Ontario continues to have excess clean electricity during overnight hours, and ULO offers customers more flexibility in managing their electricity costs by shifting high usage activities, like charging electric vehicles, away from peak times.

Knowledge is power and the more customers know about their electricity usage, the more effectively they can make choices about conserving energy to save money. Green Button, an Ontario Ministry of Energy initiative, is a data standard that connects energy customers with secure access to their electricity and natural gas data, allowing them to download and share it with registered third party vendors who can help analyze the information and find ways to better manage energy costs. The province set November 1, 2023 as the deadline for energy and natural gas companies to
provide their customers with access to their energy usage data in Green Button. Elexicon Energy was pleased to meet this deadline.

Elexicon Energy’s service territory is one of the biggest and most geographically diverse in Ontario. The organization has endured major weather events and large power outages since its formation in 2019. Historically, it’s power restoration process has focused on restoring the parts of the power system with the greatest number of customers in the shortest span of time. As it looks to improve its power restoration process for its customers and communities following the 2022 derecho storm, Elexicon hosted a Critical and Priority List workshop in August.

The goal of the workshop was to seek input from community officials, key stakeholders and emergency responders on locations within their communities they feel need to be prioritized during large power outages, ultimately strengthening the organization’s disaster preparedness and recovery process. So, while the aim will always be to have power restored as safely and quickly as possible, Elexicon’s priority will be to restore critical infrast/ructure and areas first, then move on to restoring power to the largest number of customers.

Elexicon Energy serves some of the fastest growing communities in Canada. A significant portion of the organization’s customer base is located in the Durham Region, an area that experienced a 13 per cent growth in population between 2008 and 2018. The region’s population is expected to grow to 1.3 million by 2051. The City of Belleville and the Town of Gravenhurst are also experiencing significant growth. Ensuring infrastructure is in place and connecting customers to the grid is vital to our communities’ growth.

Average Service Availability Index (“ASAI”) is the ratio of the total number of customer hours that service was available during a given time period to the total customer hours demanded.
System Average Interruption Duration Index (“SAIDI”) is the average total duration of outages (in hours) experienced by a customer in the year.
System Average Interruption Frequency Index (“SAIFI”) is the average number of times that a system customer experienced an outage during the year.
Momentary Average Interruption Frequency Index (“MAIFI”) is the average number of momentary interruptions that a customer experienced during the year.

In early 2023, the organization began to lay the groundwork for Distribution NEXT (“Dx NEXT”), a five-year program that will advance how Elexicon does business. It brings together integrated and scalable tools to deliver costeffective and resilient energy services to support the rapid growth in the communities the organization serves.

Dx NEXT provides a holistic approach, aligning its people, processes and technology in an integrated strategy that will connect every department in the organization. This will help Elexicon work more effectively as one team to accomplish its goals of being the energy company its customers and communities deserve, while facilitating the organization’s transformation into the future.

A critical component of the Dx NEXT program is the construction of an Integrated Operations Centre (“IOC”). The construction of the new state-of-the art facility at Elexicon’s corporate headquarters in Ajax began in September and is expected to be completed by April 2024 . The IOC will house Elexicon’s System Operations team, and encompass grid control, outage management, enterprise technology and operating technology.

At Elexicon Energy, employee safety and wellness is the number one priority. To help protect its employees in the workplace and at home, the organization launched a safety program called Back-to-Basics. This multiyear program was designed in partnership with SafeStart, an industry-leading company that provides solutions for increasing personal safety and awareness skills. SafeStart helped guide Elexicon’s Health, Safety and Environment team to revitalize its existing safety program and training with the rollout and management of this initiative.

SafeStart uses safety awareness and personal skills development concepts that focus on mitigating the human factors involved in most workplace incidents and injuries. These include rushing, frustration, fatigue, complacency and distraction, which can affect a person’s ability to recognize and respond to hazards appropriately. This transformational program will provide specific error reduction techniques employees can use to reduce the risk of personal injury in any situation.

Elexicon was the inaugural recipient of the Electricity Distributors Association’s (“EDA”) Sustainability Excellence Award for its commitment to operating in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. The award marked the second consecutive year the organization has been recognized by the EDA for its sector excellence.

At their annual awards ceremony, Energy Storage Canada (“ESC”) recognized six leaders and innovators, including Elexicon Energy – naming the organization its 2023 Champion of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (“DEI”) for its
demonstration of passion and commitment for DEI, with concrete metrics measuring progress and future goals.

Elexicon was selected Top Business in the 50+ Employees category by the Ajax-Pickering Board of Trade. Their annual awards program recognizes local businesses, organizations and business leaders in the community who have demonstrated excellence in their commitment to quality, customer service, management skills
and community involvement.

More than 350 golfers descended upon Deer Creek in Ajax for Elexicon Energy’s third annual Charity Golf Tournament. The event raised a record $200,000, exceeding the 2022 tournament total by $56,000. The funds raised will support the work of six vital community agencies in Durham Region and Belleville: Alzheimer Society of Durham Region, Autism Home Base, Grace Inn Shelter, Ontario Tech University, Uxbridge Loaves and Fishes Food Bank, and WindReach Farm Foundation.

The second annual Dream Big, Dream Brighter fundraising event, hosted in partnership with Elexicon Energy and Grandview Kids Foundation, was a huge success – raising $37,330. The funds will ensure the community agency can continue to help thousands of vulnerable children, youth and families in the Durham Region live life at their full potential. This is a multi-year partnership between Elexicon and Grandview Kids Foundation, and brings the two year fundraising total to almost $70,000.

For years, Elexicon Energy has been working with the Durham Region Kids’ Safety Village in Whitby to educate children on the importance of electrical safety. In 2023, Elexicon extended this safety program to Belleville. The Children’s Safety Village Belleville is an interactive educational organization that delivers safety programs to youth of all ages and abilities in the Quinte region. Electricity safety education is critical, and this program will provide information to protect children and the entire community from electrical hazards. Elexicon has powered the City of Belleville for 23 years, and is proud to support many community events and charitable organizations.

The Seaton Municipal Transformer Station is the first transformer station wholly owned and operated by Elexicon Energy. In 2023, the organization celebrated the completion of this important facility. Located in north Pickering,
the station will provide connection capacity for approximately 20,000 homes and businesses in the City of Pickering and the Town of Ajax to support the rapid growth in these communities, and allow for the connection of renewable
energy resources.

In planning the new transformer, Elexicon took the opportunity to investigate innovations that would revitalize its services to better serve customers today and into the future. The overall lower cost of having one provider for electricity transmission and distribution is an advantage for customers. The modern equipment is housed
in a climate controlled indoor environment which provides greater reliability than outdoor equipment that is exposed to the elements, animal interference and other potential issues. Another customer benefit is that Elexicon will perform ongoing maintenance and repairs to the transformer, and in the case of an outage, local field staff can respond more quickly to restore power.

Another major milestone for Elexicon Energy in 2023 was the completion of the Belleville Operations Centre . Elexicon serves over 18,000 residential and business customers in the community. With economic development in the area thriving, Elexicon is committed to enhancing its services to all customers in their future growth, creating local jobs, supporting the Government of Ontario in their goal of building homes faster, while ensuring a reliable, affordable and clean supply of electricity.

The 16,000 square foot facility connects Elexicon staff from Lines, Metering, Engineering and GIS teams, and can accommodate six large vehicles and seven small- to mediumsized vehicles. There is also storage for poles, transformers, cables and other vital resources needed for ongoing maintenance. Having this equipment on hand will help expedite restoration when outages occur, another key benefit for customers.

In July 2023, the Ontario Energy Board (“OEB”) approved partial funding of Elexicon Energy’s Incremental Capital Module requests included in its rate-setting mechanism application. The OEB approved a subset of the costs for Elexicon’s Whitby Smart Grid Project, an initiative that involves the deployment of a suite of technologies. The project includes an Advanced Distribution Management System (“ADMS”) and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (“SCADA”) investments which will improve visibility on the status of the grid and afford Elexicon greater remote control of system assets.

The ADMS and SCADA investments will help support Elexicon’s grid modernization efforts to prepare its system for the future. This will benefit customers and communities by improving the reliability and resiliency of its distribution through reductions in outage restoration times.