At the Forefront of Keeping the Lights On
Once a power line tech and now operations director, Ryan Shonaman shares why Saint John Energy is a Canadian leader in reliability.
By Ryan Shonaman, March 17, 2023
I spent a good part of my working life as a power line technician at Saint John Energy. On the worst days – out in a torrential rain storm or in the bitterly fierce grip of an icy blizzard – it can be gruelling and exhausting.
But as challenging as the power line technician job can be, there is an immense pride and sense of accomplishment – particularly at Saint John Energy, where everyone is relentlessly committed to the reliable delivery of electricity to our customers.
This commitment across the organization is why we have again earned top marks across Canada.
Everyone at Saint John Energy is relentlessly committed to the reliable delivery of electricity to our customers
In an annual survey of customers conducted for Electricity Canada last fall, Saint John Energy achieved an 80 per cent satisfaction rating for reliability, significantly above the national average for utilities at 61 per cent. For years, we have earned nation-leading scores.
It’s humbling to be recognized as leaders in Canada, and we’re so grateful for the trust and faith our customers have in us.
Strong electrical grid
This high praise from our customers is something we seek to earn every day. Every day, we work hard at maintaining a strong electrical grid for our city, to ensure that our customers can continue to enjoy a dependable supply of electricity that we’ve delivered since we were founded more than a century ago in 1922.
We owe so much to the quality of work and the outstanding commitment of our line crews.
After nearly two decades serving the citizens of Saint John as a power line technician, it is my pleasure to continue to serve as the Executive Director of Operations.
I can tell you that there is a steady march of activity, much of it behind the scenes, to ensure your lights stay on and your homes are warm. And when there is an outage, we act quickly to restore power.
We owe so much to the quality of work and the outstanding commitment of our line crews, members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1524.
Boots on the ground
They truly are the first responders in the event of trouble for us – whether that be an outage during a fierce storm or moving swiftly to attend to a car accident that brings down a line. And these workers, along with so many people across our organization, are essential to our efforts to get ahead of issues so they don’t become expensive problems and inconveniences to our customers.
Prevention is our best strategy in maintaining reliable service.
Our people are constantly out, boots on the ground, inspecting equipment and lines for any sign that anything needs to be repaired or replaced. We employ thermal vision in the field to check for the potential for trouble on the lines, for instance. Fault indicators strategically placed on feeder lines assist us with locating the issue when outages do happen.
We invest in an industry-leading digital asset management system so that we know the lifespan of our lines, poles and other equipment. That system, packed with data and linked to GIS, allows us to inspect, repair or replace to avoid failures.
Adding sophistication
For more than 20 years, we’ve invested in SCADA technologies – employing software, sensors and equipment – that allow us to detect outages very quickly, in some cases even before our customers.
Our decades of investment in SCADA technologies allow us to detect outages very quickly, in some cases even before our customers.
We’re in the midst of building the Utility of the Future for Saint John, which includes made-in-New Brunswick advances that will add speed and sophistication to detecting and responding to changes on our system.
We also have redundancies in place that, in some cases, allow us to switch customers over to another line if there is a localized outage. And often we can do that from our control room, without the necessity of having to send a crew out.
In most cases, outages that do happen are beyond our control.
Bolstering reliability
For us, reliability is a lot more than a point of pride – it’s hard work and diligence. We’re focused on that every day to ensure that the electricity is flowing to our customers.
A common cause of outages, especially during storms, is a tree hitting power lines. We invest more in trimming to prevent that from happening – we view that as insurance against the expense of fixing an outage.
And we employ covered conductors on most of our distribution lines and use animal guards on the most vulnerable of our equipment, which bolsters our reliability.
For us, reliability is a lot more than a point of pride – it’s hard work and diligence. We’re focused on that every day to ensure that the electricity is flowing to our customers.
Because we know you depend on us.
Ryan Shonaman is Executive Director of Operations at Saint John Energy. Ryan began his career with Saint John Energy in 2001 as an apprentice power line technician and became a certified power line technician in 2005. He worked on the line crew for nearly 18 years.