Good news, bad news in SaskPower annual report

Despite a couple of major power outages and the start of the carbon tax, 2018-19 appears to have been a good year for SaskPower, with the Crown corporation reporting a dividend for the first time in seven years.

Thanks to higher electricity sales, SaskPower made a net income of $197 million last year, up $51 million from the year before. That was reported in the company’s annual report, tabled on Friday.

That means the company was able to report a dividend to the Crown Investments Corporation for the first time since 2012, to the tune of $20 million.

SaskPower spent $833 million on upgrading and sustaining the power grid in 2018-19, and is budgeting to spend $873 million on its capital program this year.

CEO Mike Marsh said SaskPower is undertaking significant work on its aging infrastructure to stop outages.

Marsh said Regina has seen a slight increase in outages over the past few months, but it’s about average when looked at in the long term.

“We continue to prioritize the dollars we have on infrastructure replacement,” Marsh said. “Money is not free and we have to make sure that we work within the budgets that we have to make sure that we can deal with the reliability issues around the province, Regina included.”

In May, SaskPower announced it was spending nearly $19 million on infrastructure upgrades in Regina.

Aging infrastructure has been identified as one of SaskPower’s biggest challenges.

In the annual report, the company said significant sections of its wooden poles are beyond their expected lives. In fact, 37 per cent of the original wooden poles that were installed during the electrification of the province are still being used.

Marsh said SaskPower has increased staffing and programming in this area.

“Aging infrastructure is not something you will ever wrap up in one year. It’s far too expensive,” said Marsh.

SaskPower largely overshot its target for length and number of outages in the province in the past year. But the report said it was mostly due to major weather events: Heavy rain and wind went though the Coronach area in June, and rime frost on distribution lines caused widespread power outages in December.

Under its accomplishments for the past year, SaskPower listed steps forward on several renewable energy projects, like the Western Lily Wind Energy Facility near Grenfell, the Golden South Wind Energy Facility near Assiniboia, and a solar power project announced near Swift Current.