Powering Hydro’s future

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/09/2019 (2292 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The woman who will guide Manitoba Hydro through what is expected to be an era of profound change in the energy utility sector spoke publicly for the first time last week, after taking over leadership of the Crown corporation eight months ago.

It’s not that Jay Grewal is a recluse — far from it — but she says she wanted to gain a good understanding of the $27-billion company and meet many of its 5,400 employees before delivering public addresses or doing media interviews.

“I didn’t feel, to be honest, I had anything to say,” she said in her corner office on the 22nd floor of Hydro’s downtown headquarters, with its panoramic view of north and west Winnipeg.

“This is my third integrated Crown utility. So I understand the industry, but I needed to understand Manitoba Hydro and how we do things here.” – Jay Grewal, president and CEO of Manitoba Hydro

While that might be an overly modest self-assessment, it offers some hints about the management style of the corporation’s first female president and chief executive officer.

In her first interview since taking over the company’s top job on Feb. 4, Grewal said she spent her first several months focused on learning about the corporation. She criss-crossed the province, conducting 22 town hall-style meetings with employees, travelling as far north as Gillam. She’s also twice visited the site of the massive Keeyask generating station, which is still under construction.

“This is my third integrated Crown utility,” she said, referring to her executive roles with B.C. Hydro and Northwest Territories Power Corp. “So I understand the industry, but I needed to understand Manitoba Hydro and how we do things here.”

The corporation Grewal inherits has a huge debt, which is expected to grow to $25 billion over the next few years after decades of hydro dam and transmission line construction.

Cash is tight and the corporation might have to borrow money to meet its operating costs once the massive $8.7-billion Keeyask station comes on stream late next year.

While dealing with financial challenges, Grewal, 60, says one of her prime objectives is to position the corporation for the future, as North America comes to grips with climate change and lessens its reliance on fossil fuels.

“We would not be serving Manitobans and our customers if we weren’t thinking about this and preparing for.”–Grewal, on a shift away from fossil fuels

And, as she said in her maiden speech to the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce last week, that means getting Hydro ready for huge anticipated changes to the electrical grid brought on by new technologies and shifting consumer demands.

Grewal said a move away from fossil fuels due to climate change is inevitable, the only unknown is the pace of change. But Manitoba Hydro needs to be ready for what’s coming.

“We would not be serving Manitobans and our customers if we weren’t thinking about this and preparing for this,” she said.

Embraced Winnipeg

Unlike some recent Manitoba Crown corporation executive appointees, Grewal, a B.C. native who has spent most of her adult years in Vancouver, has embraced Winnipeg and made it her home.

She and her husband, a retired engineer, lived in the Exchange District for their first six months here before buying a house in East St. Paul. The couple has two sons, ages 28 and 26, who live in Vancouver.

Grewal said she’s been “very pleasantly surprised” with what the city has to offer, pointing to its thriving arts and culture scene and “all these amazing restaurants.”

“We spent all our free time exploring Winnipeg,” she said of the couple’s first half-year in the Manitoba capital. Weekend house-hunting expeditions took them to all parts of the city.

She said what she likes about Winnipeg is “it offers everything a large city does without some of the disadvantages that come with a large city.”

Grewal (pronounced grey-wall) grew up in Nanaimo, B.C.

“I’m an Island girl, and a railroad brat,” she said. Her dad worked for CP Rail.

She attended University of British Columbia, obtained a bachelor’s degree in urban sociology, and later received an MBA in finance from the University of Western Ontario.

She’s held several positions in the private sector, including a three-year stint with Capstone Mining, where she served as senior vice-president.

She came to the Manitoba Hydro from Northwest Territories Power Corp., which is based in Hay River, NWT, where she was president and CEO.

Before that, she held a number of executive positions at B.C. Hydro, including acting chief financial officer, chief compliance officer and director of business development, where she had responsibility for strategic planning, corporate finance, information technology and energy transmission.

No designs on privatization

When Grewal’s appointment was announced last November, the provincial NDP seized upon it as evidence the Pallister government intended to privatize all or parts of Manitoba Hydro — due to the role she played at B.C. Hydro in outsourcing parts of its operations.

However, Grewal said she played no role in the decision making, which occurred well before her arrival. Her role was to carry out decisions that had already been made by the B.C. government and the utility’s board of directors.

“I was not hired or brought here to privatize Manitoba Hydro,” she said. “That was never part of any discussion with the board or with government.”

Asked if there are any portions of the utility that have been identified as candidates for privatization, she said: “I would say to you that all the work that we are doing… as we’re looking at the organization, is based on the principal assumption that we remain an integrated utility.”

Grewal said she was approached for the Manitoba Hydro position by a third party who conducted a search for candidates for the corporation’s board.

“I believe I have a number of the skills that are needed for where Manitoba Hydro is… at this point in time,” she said. “I have a lot of experience in moving organizations forward. I have a lot of experience in building strategy and (executing) on that strategy.”

She said there was a desire on the part of the Hydro board to develop a long-term strategy for the corporation as it completes its major construction projects, including Keeyask.

Grewal said Hydro is working to develop a 20-year strategic plan. It has met with a variety of stakeholders and hopes to reveal its results by late winter.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca