Sponsored by Calgary Economic Development.
Joel Schlesinger © Postmedia Content Works.
Originally published in the Calgary Herald on Oct. 29, 2024.
The future’s so bright, it’s electric.
Calgarians have grown accustomed to reliable electricity, often taking it for granted. We expect it to seamlessly power our daily lives and fuel our aspirations for a brighter tomorrow.
However, delivering electricity to every building, streetlight and consumer across Calgary’s sprawling 1,000-plus square kilometres is no small task. Just ask Greg Retzer, an executive vice president at ENMAX who leads the team in charge of ENMAX’s wire services business — Calgary’s exclusive electricity provider.
ENMAX is wholly owned by The City of Calgary, ensuring that every home, business, school, church, hospital and public building has the electricity it needs, 24 hours a day. “We are in charge of all the electrical infrastructure in the city, from maintaining it to expanding the grid to keep up with the city’s growth,” says Retzer. “More than anything, we ensure Calgarians have power when they need it.”
It’s a monumental task, as shown by the fact that Calgarians enjoy consistently reliable, on-demand electricity. However, ensuring that power is reliably delivered to 570,000 metered customers across more than 9,000 km of electrical lines is just one of ENMAX’s challenges. The utility is also striving to stay ahead of rising demand as Calgary experiences rapid, unprecedented growth across multiple sectors.
“It’s just going gangbusters,” says Retzer. “Our residential, commercial and industrial real estate sectors are seeing huge projects underway.” Each year, ENMAX is investing about $300 million to maintain, upgrade and expand the grid, providing Calgary with a foundation for prosperity and growth. Demand will only keep growing with the increasing electrification of the economy — including expected growth in electric vehicle use, solar panel installations and changes to how people heat and cool their homes.
“The energy transition is creating new ways to use electricity and how we interact with it.” Retzer adds ENMAX is currently in the midst of a $200-million upgrade to a downtown substation to ensure continued reliability to Calgary’s downtown and meet rising demand. ‘ “It’s important we’re constantly planning ahead, making sure we’re doing the rightthings because our goal is not only about enabling the needs of Calgarians today,”Retzer says. “At ENMAX, our goal is tolight the way to a brighter energy future.”
This feature was created by Content Works, Postmedia’s commercial content division, on behalf of Calgary Economic Development.