Extra Information From Quiz Committee: As the 20th century progressed, it was found that power at 60 cycles had advantages, so the newer generating plants in Ontario (and in the U.S.A.)
were built to produce 60 cycle power. This meant that the industrial heartland of Canada, namely Southern Ontario, was out of step with the rest
of North America.
As Woodstock was supplied with 25 cycle power, (now called 25 Hertz, or 25 Hz), when families moved to a different area in Ontario, they were often
faced with the added expense of having their appliances changed to the prevailing frequency in that area. In the late 1940s, it was decided to
standardize the older system with the newer one. This massive and expensive project took a great deal of planning.
Starting in 1954, the major local industries such as Standard Tube, Hay Company, Eureka Foundry and the Thomas Furniture Company were the first to
be changed over. At the beginning, Ontario Hydro referred to this project as Frequency Conversion but soon the wags were asking others if they had been
"converted yet" and so the name was changed to Frequency Standardization which did not have the same religious overtones.
Those appliances that used electric motors such as washing machines, refrigerators, driers, fans etc. needed to be changed. One of our Quiz panel members, Fred Freeman, was involved with this project in the Niagara area during the 1950s and remembers certain items that required special attention, such as an electric mouse trap. Also, there was a power plant at St. Catharines, called DeCew Falls, that took its water from the Welland Canal. It was constructed about 1898 and has continued to supply power to Hamilton. It still had its original German turbines and had a most unusual frequency of 66 2/3 cycles. This was the easiest changeover for Hydro to make: they just cut the water to slow the generators down by about 10%. Beside the DeCew plant was a much larger and newer plant with 25 cycle generators that all had to be rewound.
It was a delicate balancing act for Ontario Hydro to gradually cut back on supplying 25Hz and step up the supply of the new (to Southern Ontario) 60Hz electricity. Each home was surveyed well ahead of time for the appliances that needed attention. Some items such as electric clocks, fans and small appliances were scrapped and the homeowner would pick out a new one of comparable value. By 1957, the changeover was complete.
When frequency standardization was seriously proposed in the late 1940s, the cost was projected to be $190 million, a great amount of money at that time. However, when the actual final costs were added up 10 or so years later, the total was found to be over $400 million in 1950 dollars. If this massive project had been delayed any longer its cost would have been incalculable.
Virtually all of Ontario is now using 60 cycle power, but when the first electrical generating plants were constructed at Niagara Falls in the late 1800s and early 1900s they were built to supply 25 cycle power to Ontario.
Sources:
- ‘Public Enterprises’, Woodstock PUC Publication
- Fred Freeman, former-employee, Ontario Hydro