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Tony Bennett: Improving Public Safety Around Dams in Canada and Worldwide tells Hydro Leader about the significance of public safety around dams and the new techniques that are helping preserve lives in Canada and around the world. Hydro Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.
Safety booms and signage are visible around OPG's 6-megawatt Seymour Falls Generating Station, located on the Trent River near Campbellford, Ontario.
Tony Bennett: I began my career at Ontario Hydro’s research division before moving to its civil engineering department in the operations branch, which I was fortunate to join just prior to the launch of the company’s dam safety program in 1986. I have held a number of roles since then, always tethered to dams, and since 2002, I have been the director of dam and public safety at OPG. During this time, OPG has supported my participation in a number of professional and industry associations. I have served on the CDA’s board of directors, including serving two terms as president, and remain a member of its dam safety committee and the chair of the working groups on public safety and emergency management, both of which report to the dam safety committee. I also serve as chair of ICOLD’s committee on public safety and participate in a number of other hydro industry forums. Hydro Leader: Please tell us about OPG as a as an agency.
Safety booms are visible above OPG’s 8-megawatt Ragged Rapids Generating Station, located near Bala, Ontario.
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24 | HYDRO LEADER | January 2021
Hydro Leader: Please tell us about your role in the CDA’s public safety work and your involvement in developing the CDA’s guidelines for public safety around dams. Tony Bennett: OPG’s work in public safety around dams began in 2002, when we had an accident at one of our facilities on the Madawaska River. At that time, public safety was outside the realm of OPG’s dam safety program. I was initially tasked with looking for industry guidance and standards regarding public safety around dams. What I found was that there was little guidance out there. Within hydroleadermagazine.com
PHOTOS COURTESY OF OPG.
ony Bennett is the longtime director of dam and public safety at Ontario Power Generation (OPG), which generates half the electricity for the Canadian province of Ontario. Over the course of his career at OPG and as a participant in the Canadian Dam Association (CDA) and the International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD), Mr. Bennett has played a major role in developing public safety standards on the enterprise, national, and international levels. In particular, he played a central role in developing the CDA’s guidelines for public safety around dams. In this interview, he
Tony Bennett: OPG produces more than half the electricity used by the province of Ontario. It is a generator, not a distributor, so it does not have a specific number of customers. Between its various hydroelectric, nuclear, and other generating facilities, OPG has a capacity of 18,876 megawatts (MW). Focusing on hydropower, OPG owns 66 hydropower stations and 241 dams in the province of Ontario. Our hydropower facilities have a capacity of 7,478 MW and produced 32.5 terawatt-hours of power in 2019. Safe operation is a fundamental building block at OPG, and as such, there is a culture that really supports our dam and public safety programs.
