Small city, local power, shared future
Edmundston Energy has served northwestern New Brunswick for more than a century. Now it’s working with the Maritime Municipal Electric Utility Alliance to tackle the energy challenges ahead
By Pierre Roy
In a small city like Edmundston, local service matters.
People expect quick responses when they need a new electrical connection. They expect their utility to understand the community it serves. And they expect decisions about their electrical system to be made by people who live and work here.
Those expectations are one of the reasons municipally owned utilities continue to matter.
Edmundston is a proud francophone community of more than 18,000 people in northwestern New Brunswick, nestled at the confluence of the Madawaska and Saint John rivers. For generations, local industries, local businesses and local families have helped shape the city and its strong sense of community.
Those same values have shaped Edmundston Energy.
At Edmundston Energy, our employees are part of the community. Our office is located in the heart of the city. If a customer needs a new service connection, we can often complete the work within 48 hours. When customers call us, they’re speaking with people who know the system because they work on it every day.
But while local ownership remains one of our greatest strengths, today’s energy challenges are becoming increasingly complex. That’s one reason Edmundston Energy joined the Maritime Municipal Electric Utility Alliance.
The Alliance brings together municipally owned utilities from across New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Each utility remains independent and focused on serving its own community, but by working together we can share expertise, learn from one another and identify opportunities that would be more difficult to pursue on our own.
For a utility our size, that collaboration is invaluable.
Edmundston Energy has been serving this community for more than a century. We have been generating electricity locally since 1911, and today our three hydroelectric facilities can produce approximately 8.3 megawatts of clean electricity — enough energy to supply roughly 1,200 homes and about 10 per cent of our peak demand.
We remain the only municipal utility in New Brunswick that generates its own electricity, and people in Edmundston are proud of that history.
As someone who has spent my entire 25-year career with Edmundston Energy, I’ve seen firsthand how much our industry has changed. Electricity demand is growing as our community grows. More homes are using heat pumps. Electric vehicles are becoming more common. New residential development continues across the city.
When municipal utilities share common challenges, it makes sense to work together, share solutions and speak with a stronger collective voice.
Preparing for that growth requires significant investment. We are upgrading substations, adding transformer capacity and strengthening our distribution system to ensure we can continue meeting our community’s needs in the years ahead.
Like utilities across the region, we are also facing the challenges associated with aging infrastructure. We take great pride in the work we’ve done to maintain dependable service for our customers while continuing to invest in our system.
At the same time, we work closely with NB Power to address broader system challenges and strengthen the overall electricity supply serving our community.
These are issues many utilities face, and they highlight another important benefit of the Alliance. When municipal utilities share common challenges, it makes sense to work together, share solutions and speak with a stronger collective voice.
The practical benefits of the Alliance are immediate.
If we’re evaluating specifications for a new line truck, considering a solar project or looking at new technologies, chances are another utility has already gone through a similar process. Sometimes, instead of spending days searching for information, I simply pick up the phone and call a colleague.
We’ve learned from other utilities on projects involving solar energy, battery storage and emerging technologies. At the same time, other members have called us for advice related to hydro generation. The knowledge-sharing goes both ways.
It saves time, avoids headaches and ultimately helps all of us make better decisions for our customers.
A good example here in Edmundston is our new one-megawatt rooftop solar project and battery storage system at the Jean Daigle Centre and Sports Pavilion. The project will help reduce peak demand, provide valuable operating data and support future planning.
Edmundston Energy has been serving this community for more than 100 years. The challenges facing utilities may be changing, but our commitment to local service hasn’t. By working with our partners in the Alliance, we’re better equipped to continue serving our customers and our community for many years to come.
Pierre Roy is Director of Edmundston Energy.