Hydro-Québec corrects course: the number of outages and their duration did not count for performance bonuses

While the duration of outages reached a peak in at least six years last year, Hydro-Québec did not take this aspect of its performance into account when awarding its bonuses.

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In 2023, there were 26,745 outages on Hydro’s network, 3,116 fewer than the previous year. On the other hand, the average duration of outages was 4 hours 29 minutes, compared to 3 hours 50 in 2022. The deterioration of the situation was explained in particular by the ice in April and the storms in July.

The issue of outages was not part of the criteria that Hydro evaluated to award performance bonuses to its non-union employees last year.

Rather, these criteria focused on “energy system growth”, occupational health and safety, energy efficiency, power management strategy, integration of electric vehicles, technological innovation projects, “launch external employer brand”, customer satisfaction and procurement initiatives, explained to the Journal a spokesperson for the state-owned company, Gabrielle Leblanc.

It will be different in 2024

This year, however, Hydro-Québec will take into account outages when the time comes to decide on bonuses.

In the wake of Hydro’s 2035 Action Plan, “improving the quality of service” is at the top of the list of objectives that will be used to determine performance bonuses for 2024, indicated Mr.^me Leblanc.

This major objective includes the following elements: “reduction in the number of breakdowns, reduction in delays [de branchement]deployment of a new customer platform and new functionalities in Info-Pannes”.

Remember that Hydro paid $37.5 million in bonuses for the year 2023, compared to $36.9 million for 2022. The average payment per employee, however, fell, going from $11,110 in 2022 to $9,796 in 2023.