Managing Waste
We focus on reducing waste at its source and minimizing the amount of non-hazardous and hazardous waste that is produced and in need of disposal. Despite the magnitude and complexity of electric operations, our efforts result in a relatively small quantity of hazardous waste.
The primary industrial waste produced by our operations is the fly ash from burning coal and oil. When possible, we sell some of the fly ash produced by our thermal generating stations to be used for other purposes. For example, fly ash can be used as a substitute for cement in concrete. Our companies produced a total of 1,223,656 tonnes of fly ash in 2016. Of that, 66 per cent (811,256 tonnes) was reused.
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a group of organic compounds that were used as fluids to cool and insulate electrical equipment. We’ve been removing PCBs from service over the past two decades in line with regulatory requirements. Our companies disposed of 90.52 tonnes of PCB-contaminated solid waste, such as metal transformer casings, and 62,072 litres of PCB-contaminated liquid waste in 2016.
