Members of the systems operations group at Hydro Ottawa stand next to the electric vehicle fleet.Supplied
The field operators team at Hydro Ottawa, a dedicated group of 10 that provides 24/7 emergency response to customers, clocks approximately 7,000 kilometres a month on the road. In 2026, the team is hoping to have an all-electric fleet of vehicles as they have seen immediate, and massive, benefits since trialling their first all-electric vehicle.
The team put their first all-electric truck on the road in 2023, says Greg Bell, the team’s supervisor. The fuel cost for just one gas-powered truck is about $14,000 per year; to charge an EV year-round is slightly less than $3,000. Removing a gasoline pickup truck from the road at the end of its useful life saves approximately 26 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, which is equivalent to 23.7 households’ annual electricity use.
“We’re such a small team but we have a large impact with this initiative,” Bell says.
Stephanie Foss, a field operator on Bell’s team, says that despite initial skepticism, she loves the EV fleet. Needing to charge the vehicles hasn’t impacted their response times, and the vehicles can withstand the team’s 12-hour shift cycles.
“They’ve been fantastic for us,” Foss says, adding that the three trucks the team currently has can also power the electric tools they use on the job, including electric chainsaws, water pumps and hand tools. “That was not something we expected to be able to do — we discovered it one day and thought, ‘This is great.’”
By leveraging key learnings from their current EV initiative, Hydro Ottawa is driving innovation across the organization. “The benefits of going green exceed any reason not to go green, in my view,” Bell adds. “As a utility, we’ve got to lead the way.”
The utility is powering toward its goal of achieving net-zero operations with internal initiatives like greater EV adoption and integrating low-carbon technologies into its facilities while building out its grid infrastructure to accommodate greater demand for electricity from customers.
“We’re supporting customers on their own decarbonization journeys,” says Trevor Freeman, manager of commercial accounts and program delivery.
“As customers are looking to electrify and reduce their carbon footprints, load requests are increasing,” Freeman says. “As an electric utility, we have a big role to play in making sure the grid is able to support them.”
The utility has a team dedicated to supporting customers through energy efficiency programs, which focus on reducing electricity consumption and improving efficiency — such as lighting retrofits, installing solar generation and shifting to off-peak energy consumption. It’s also designing programs to partner with customers to leverage their devices (like EVs and batteries) for an incentive, to address grid needs in specific areas.
Two years ago, the utility received federal funding for a program to help commercial customers develop strategic roadmaps to reach net zero. The program funds third-party consulting services that work with customers to audit their operations and give them a comprehensive pathway to decarbonize. The plans highlight opportunities to reduce emissions from electrification, energy efficiency and conservation measures.
“We designed the program to work with customers to say, ‘Over the next 10 to 20 years, here’s where your key decision points are,’” Freeman says.
Now in its final year, the program has created roadmaps for over 150 buildings in Ottawa. Hydro Ottawa also participated in this program and developed a roadmap for decarbonizing its own facilities, Freeman says.
“Four of our major buildings have had a carbon pathway study done. We’re now looking at how to fit that into our capital planning,” Freeman says. “We’re not just helping our customers do that, we’re leading the way by transforming our own facilities.”
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