Enmax delivers $82-million dividend to Calgary

As the lone shareholder of Enmax, the City of Calgary received the power corporation’s annual report on Tuesday, which contained a substantial dividend return.

This year, the city will be getting an $82-million dividend from Enmax for the 2022 fiscal year, up $20 million from the previous year.

Enmax board chair Charles Ruigrok said Enmax has now delivered $1.3 billion to the city of Calgary since its $280-million initial investment in 1998.

Mayor Jyoti Gondek said that number reflects a good news story for the people of Calgary.

“It’s always rewarding to see that we are getting money back from the investment that we’ve made as a shareholder and they’re important programs and services that we’ll be able to fund with this,” she said.

Enmax dividends generally go to the city’s parks program, however the mayor said the door remains open to do other things with the money.

Enmax’s CEO, Mark Poweska, who has not yet served a full year in the position, updated city councillors on the company’s work toward meeting goals such as net zero carbon emissions, while also providing affordable and reliable energy services to Calgarians and customers in U.S. state of Maine through its Versant Power division.

He said the federal government has provided funding for a study into carbon capture technology at the company’s Shepherd natural gas generating station, which will be a big part of its future carbon emission reductions.

Enmax seen as enabler of transition to greener energy

Poweska said he sees the company as an enabler of the energy transition, helping others find net zero solutions as the company itself works to achieve net zero by 2035.

“We’ve also already achieved net zero in our operations with our buildings . . . and then on the power side, Enmax Power, which is our wires division, we’re investing in things like advanced metering infrastructure,” he said.

During the shareholder meeting, Poweska talked about the company’s load limiter devices, which are installed for customers who are having trouble paying their bills.

“When customer customers struggled with energy affordability last year, Enmax chose not to disconnect any residential customers for non-payment,” he said. “Instead, customers in arrears were placed on a load limiter to keep power flowing while they worked with our customer care team on a payment plan.”

Poweska said they’ve expanded the load limiter pilot this year and they’re advocating other utilities adopt a similar model.

He also said the average customer is only on a load limiter for three days, and it encourages them to speak with Enmax customer service staff, who can work with them to find payment solutions.

The company could not provide much data on the use of the program, such as whether or not the use of the limiters has increased or decreased.

It said as of Monday, 737 customers were on a load limiter, adding the number constantly changes. During last year’s AGM, which was held in late June, Enmax said it had “about 300” customers on load limiters at that time.

Twitter: @brodie_thomas