Canadiana question: is "hydro" a blanket term for "electricity"?

[rwg@aoir.social]

Canadiana question: is "hydro" a blanket term for "electricity"?

I just read a Globe and Mail story that referred to windmills -- the things that are spun by the wind -- as "hydro windmills."

I can imagine how all this started but I gotta say it's really confusing seeing a term that literally means "water" being used for things that are not water. Would a Canadian say "hydro coal"?

#Canada #askACanadian

[unnamedau@lia.fail]

@rwg hmm... i imagine it depends on where you're at? i don't hear it a lot here, but we are landlocked

[puzzled@coales.co]

@rwg I've thought "hydro" in that sense was an Ontario thing.

I used to believe it was important to care about words and meaning but I've let go of that. Sorta.

[rwg@aoir.social]

@puzzled The writer in question stated they were from BC originally, though that doesn't negate your observation that maybe it's an Ontario thing.

I can't let go of words -- they're all I have left

[musing_sys@social.fringesec.ca]

@rwg well, when your provincial electricity provider is named Hydro One…. But ‘Hydro windmills’ is just wrong

[chigaze@mstdn.ca]

@rwg I think it's very regional. I know Ontario and BC will talk about Hydro as that's the name of their primary power companies. In Alberta we just talk about the power bill rather than the Hydro bill.

[mark@canuck.social]

@musing_sys @rwg as a customer in a more rural area (but still in a town) I refer to them as Hydro None. 5-6 outages every year, typically 3-8 hours long.

[wdenton@cosocial.ca]

@rwg In Ontario that's how it's used, in my experience. When everything came through Ontario Hydro it was always "the Hydro" providing "hydro." You might now ask someone with a remote cabin if they're "on the hydro" or using solar panels.

[rwg@aoir.social]

@wdenton And I presume that if they were using solar, they would not say "we have solar hydro"?

[wdenton@cosocial.ca]

@rwg No, that's weird!

[wdenton@cosocial.ca]

@rwg But if they offer some "BC hydro" then they're talking about something different, if you know what I mean.

[dirchansky@mofu.one]

@rwg afaik BC and Ontario both have long standing electricity companies with Hydro in their name
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/organizational-structure/ministries-organizations/crown-corporations/bc-hydro-and-power-authority and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_Hydro

I think Alberta has more conventional wording (gas, electricity, hydro) for our utilities. I remember being confused when I first moved to ON too re: hydro

[rwg@aoir.social]

@wdenton I guess we can forgive folks -- the very word "windmill" is also not quite right. No grains are being milled.

[rwg@aoir.social]

@wdenton heh!

[valuesubtracted@mstdn.ca]

@Chigaze @rwg Manitoba, as well - the sole power company is Manitoba Hydro. The vast majority of what they produce is actual hydroelectricity, but they also maintain a thermal station, a handful of gas-burning stations, and windmills.

[leannewu@scholar.social]

@rwg Depends on the major power source in your area and how your utility brands itself. Nobody uses "hydro" that way in my neck of the prairies, even if locally there are some hydroelectric dams that are part our power mix.

[justinderrick@mstdn.ca]

@rwg It’s a historical thing - most electricity was generated via Hydroelectric power - it became shorthand for all things relating to the electric grid. “They’re repairing the hydro lines” would make perfect sense, even though they weren’t talking about water.

The term has persisted, even though Ontario’s power is largely nuclear now. In Quebec, “Hydro Quebec” makes more sense since around 90% of their generating capacity comes from hydroelectric generation.

It’s just a strangely Canadian thing, like measuring driving distance in hours, or describing your height or weight in feet and pounds, but using metric for nearly everything else.

Having said all that, “Hydro windmills” is weird. “Wind turbine” is probably better / more accurate.

[edwing@mstdn.moimeme.ca]

@Chigaze @rwg This also true for Québec… our electricity monopoly is called “Hydro-Québec”, or Hydro as a shorthand.

And we do have Hydro windmills, as in windmills owned by Hydro-Québec.

Fun fact: Canada did have an actual hydro “windmill”, or tidal generating station in Annapolis, Nova Scotia!

Annapolis Royal Generating Station - Wikipedia

(en.wikipedia.org)