Kitchener-Wilmot Hydroand Waterloo North Hydro merge to become Enova Power

The merger between Kitchener-Wilmot Hydroand Waterloo North Hydroiscomplete and both utility companieswill now be known asEnovaPower Corp.

EnovaPower becomes the seventh largest electricity distribution company in Ontario with 157,000 residential and business customers.

Rene Gatien, former president and CEO of Waterloo North Hydro and Jerry Van Ooteghem, the former president and CEO of Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro, have beenappointed as co-CEOs ofEnovaPower.

The company will lookafter customers in Kitchener, Waterloo as well as thetownships of Woolwich, Wilmot and Wellesley.

Enova Power begins operations Sept. 12.

Merge willsaves costs

Gatiensaid the merger will help save the company and customerscostsover the nextthree years as the integrationcarries out.

"By merging together, some of the things that we each [company] have to pay for, we only pay one of instead of two," Gatien toldCBC Kitchener-Waterloo during an announcement Thursday.

"As we retire, there will be one CEO, so there will be savings like that throughout the organization," he added.

"Our goal is over time, over two to three years that we will bring the levels down and that will help reduce costs and those go directly to the costumers."

Rosa Lupo,thechair of the board of directors forEnovaPower's parent companyEnovaEnergy Corporation said service to customers will be the same and more reliable.

"We're still locally owned and we get to write our own destiny," she said."But now we're the seventh largest in the province, which will mean we now have a voice at the table to be a more reliable source."

Lupo, who was the vice-chair of theboard forKitchener-Wilmot Hydro, said the companies have always worked together,pointing to the storm in May, where Waterloo North Hydro was there to support and assist.

"We've always worked together as neighbours as to very similar organizations within the community and now it brings them under one name," she said.

The merger is not unique. The City of Guelph merged Guelph Hydrowith public utility company Alectrain 2017 and Cambridge, North Dumfries and Brantford merged their hydro utilities to form GrandBridge Energy in May of this year.