Investment in Reliability

Small incremental change is often critical to making lasting improvements to just about anything in life and Hamilton’s electric reliability is no exception. Around 2016 an effort was made to look for more proactive opportunities around our ongoing distribution infrastructure maintenance. About $2.5M has been invested annually into programs that have: assessed our infrastructure and surrounding vegetation, replaced utility poles annually nearing the end of their useful life and trimmed back vegetation around our electric infrastructure throughout the City. This continued investment has taken Hamilton’s already good reliability record and made it great! Thanks in no small part to these programs, today Hamilton is the proud holder of three prestigious national honors: The American Public Power Association’s E.F Scattergood Award, a Certificate of Excellence in Reliability, and the Reliable Public Power Provider (or RP3) Diamond designation.

New Substation 12 (HEP #2)

At the end of 2021 a new substation, HEP #2, supporting Hamilton Enterprise Park was completed. This $12M investment was an important milestone in future proofing our distribution infrastructure for years to come. The 90 MVA, 138kV/13.7kV substation provides additional distribution capacity, or enough power to support about 18,000 residential homes, to the most industry rich section of the city. HEP #2 also provides system redundancy with the help of HEP #1 substation in this area, which is critical to ensuring that electric service to industrial customers in Hamilton is as reliable as possible. Now that this new infrastructure is complete, HEP #1’s capacity can be used to support current and future customers, while improving redundancy and reliability for our customers.

“Tonight we turn a lever and press a button and behold, the heavens are ablaze with light!” proclaimed Nelson Williams, a lawyer, civic leader, and feature speaker of the Great Electric Light Celebration of 1895. The occasion was to mark the completion of the first municipal power plant on North 3rd Street.

The modern marvel of a facility featured a pair of arc lighting machines providing 120kW of electric power and three Corliss engines manufactured by Hamilton’s own Hooven, Owens, & Rentschler Company. Electricity was set to be a huge benefit for the Hamilton residents, as it was expected to provide residential lighting at 40% the cost of gas and to be available 24/7. At the time, gas lighting was only available through a private company from twilight until midnight each day.

A parade, band concert and official program around the Butler County Courthouse kicked off the celebration that was accented with a 50-gun salute, ringing fire bells and fireworks. And, as promised, with the turn of a lever and a push of the button, the first 215 city street lights “set the heavens ablaze with light.”

Over the next 50 years, Hamilton’s electric generation grew in step with the growth of demand and soon the scale of our systems called for increased connection with the regional grid. Today, Hamilton meets our customer energy needs through a well diversified generation portfolio that includes rights to power and generation that we own and operate, located throughout the midwest. Hamilton relies on our in-city generation assets primarily to provide support on peak power usage days. Peak days now demand in excess of 1000 times more energy than the inaugural plant was capable of.