Today, Utilities Kingston is sharing its 2016 online annual reports with the community.

The "Building Better Communities" reports and a brief video overview are available at www.UtilitiesKingston.com/2016 and www.KingstonHydro.com/2016 or follow the hashtag #OurYear2016 on Twitter for the highlights listed below.

From ensuring strong and robust infrastructure to effectively managing utility emergencies and mitigating the environmental impact of delivering utility services, our employees have a long history of helping to build the Kingston community. Check our annual reports to learn about the progress we made in 2016.

Wholly-owned by the City of Kingston, Utilities Kingston cares for water, wastewater, gas, electricity and fibre-optic networks on behalf of its customers, as well as municipally-owned streetlights and traffic signals. It has served Kingston since 1847, when it was founded as the Kingston Gas and Light Company.

Utilities Kingston's 2016 Highlights 

Community  

• Utilities Kingston employees raised $23,521 for the United Way.
• Conducted 43 public tours of water and wastewater treatment facilities.
• Provided the water buggy at 47 local events.

Health and safety

• Provided 64 training sessions, totaling 3,618 training hours.
• Hosted 565 attendees and 205 contractors for Safety Days. The annual event is jointly hosted with the City. Its training and information sessions are all about instilling safety as the highest value in the workplace.
• Conducted 284 sewer safety inspections and created a new video to help increase public awareness of sewer cross bores.
• Participated at Trades Day with 500 local high school students. Utilities Kingston employees from a number of departments attended and provided demonstrations about  water, wastewater, gas and electricity operations, measurement and communications, and streetlights and traffic signals.

Conservation

• Funded 45 local water conservation projects, stimulating $1 million in local conservation work.
• Delivered our 10,000^th rain barrel, since 2006.
• Funded 79 customer electricity projects through Save on Energy – saving enough electricity to supply 696 average residential customers.
• Delivered over 18,000 Powerful Insight Reports to customers – providing personalized insights and conservation advice specific to each customer’s behaviours.
• Accepted the LDC Champion Award from the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO). The award recognizes Utilities Kingston's conservation and demand management achievements through the 2011-2014 Save on Energy Programs.

Water achievements

• Replaced nearly 9,000 water meters, improving asset management and ensuring accurate, reliable metering of the water consumed by our customers.
• Inspected all 3,458 municipal fire hydrants to help ensure fire protection.
• Completed final testing and began operating the $50 million upgrade to the Point Pleasant Water Treatment Plant. The upgrades increased the plant capacity from 45 million litres per day to 80 million litres per day. 
• Installed 527 backflow preventers to ensure water will never flow from customer facilities into the distribution system.
• Took 4,005 microbiological samples and 12,229 chemical samples – 2,895 more than in 2015, due to three-year requirements for radiological testing.

Wastewater achievements

• Cleaned and inspected 40 km of sewer mains to ensure the integrity of the sanitary sewer.
• Broke ground on the four-year, $88 million expansion of Cataraqui Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant to increase plant capacity, improve the quality of treated wastewater it discharges, and upgrade equipment.
• Made repairs in the Portsmouth Sewer Shed to reduce the risk of basement flooding, sewer overflows and pipe collapse, as well as reduce the amount of energy expended in pumping this otherwise clean water to treatment facilities. 
• Provided the Preventative Plumbing Program, in its fourth year, to 138 homeowners. This program provides financial assistance to install preventative plumbing and help reduce the risk of sewage back-ups and basement flooding.

Gas achievements

• Replaced nearly 5,000 of the 15,000 gas meters in the municipal gas distribution system, to verify accuracy and that the meters conform to legal requirements.
• To ensure the integrity of the gas system, developed and implemented a new gas valve maintenance program with a focus on high pressure and steel gas mains.  New equipment enables more thorough valve inspection and cleaning.  
• As part of maintaining the integrity of the natural gas system, Utilities Kingston inspects over 20 per cent of the infrastructure for leaks on an annual basis. In 2016, the company found and fixed 19 leaks.

Electricity achievements

• Visually inspected 2,913 poles and related equipment. Inspection results are assessed and used to help prioritize capital works.
• Through the infrared scanning preventative program, identified 81 defects that are prioritized for operation and maintenance works.
• Installed, replaced, or upgraded electrical infrastructure as part of Princess Street Reconstruction Phase Three, from Bagot to Clergy.
• Responded to 50 unplanned power outages, the lowest over the past ten years.
• Began offering information on unplanned outages on the Utilities Kingston website map. Utilities Kingston strives to continually improve outage communications so that disruption to customers is minimized.

Streetlight and traffic signals achievements

• Replaced 42 end-of-life poles, which were identified for replacement in 2015 as part of a proactive visual inspection program.
• Visually inspected 2,255 poles and prioritized 20 for replacement.
• Installed 60 more uninterruptible power supply systems at 13 intersections.
• Installed the first two pedestrian crossovers in our municipality for the City.

See and share the full reports at www.UtilitiesKingston.com/2016 and www.KingstonHydro.com/2016.