Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro, Waterloo North Hydro officially merge
Posted Sep 9, 2022 11:05:01 AM.
Following nearly a year of discussions, Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro, and Waterloo North Hydro announced they will officially merge and become Enova Power Corporation.
The new company will cover five municipalities in the region (Kitchener, Waterloo, Wellesley, Wilmot, Woolwich), and serve over 157,000 customers including residents, and businesses.
Mayors from each of the five municipalities were on hand for the announcement, as well as city councillors, and Enova board members.
The former CEO's of Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro, and Waterloo North Hydro, Jerry Van Ooteghem and Rene Gatien, will become co-CEOs of Enova.
Van Ooteghem spoke about what customers can expect.
“Our electricity, and demands are going to increase over time. Our world is changing, and our expectations with respect to sustainability are increasing,” he said. “We need to be prepared for the future, but [customers will] continue to receive the great service and reliability they always have.”
As technology changes, Gatien said it was inevitable that the two companies would eventually merge. The process for merging was long, and required collaboration between several different parties.
“We wanted to consult the community, and make sure we were doing the right thing,” Gatien said. “The community was great in letting us know how they felt about things, and they were very clear.”
Enova will now be the seventh largest electricity distribution company in the province, and has over 300 employees. Over 50 per cent of Enova Energy Corporation is owned by the City of Kitchener.
“What we're going to do is best practices from each of the utilities, but we'll look at best practices across the industry,” Gatien said. “So as we harmonize, and change things, we want our customers here to get the best of what's going on, either between the two utilities, or right across our industry.”
