Keyed in: Improving utility operations through key management

Of all the daily luxuries many of us are lucky enough to enjoy, electricity may be the one we take for granted the most. We simply assume that when we turn on a light, open the fridge or plug in a cord, everything will work as it should.

In reality, it’s a massive effort for utility providers to produce the electricity we need for our daily lives and it’s critically important that they have the necessary infrastructure in place to make that process as seamless as possible. There are numerous components to operations, yet one may serve as a unique microcosm of how security solutions can dramatically improve everyday processes.

Hydro-Québec

At more than 1.3 million square kilometres, Québec is the second largest Canadian province, as well as the second most populous. More than nine million people call it home and the vast majority rely on Hydro-Québec for their daily electricity.

As such, Hydro-Québec has more than 400 sites spread out across the province to serve its customers, with 21 of them housing vehicle sharing that company employees use to maintain operations. With such a wide area to cover, it’s vital that Hydro-Québec has a system in place to manage and service its fleet so that employees can carry out their duties.

In 2020, Hydro-Québec was managing vehicle keys in a time-consuming and manual fashion. Many of them were kept on pegboards at the various locations and an employee needed to be on-site to check which keys were in and out. The logbook was not always properly maintained and keys would often go missing, which not only represented a security risk if they ended up in the wrong person’s hands but also a financial liability, as the company needed to replace keys to sustain operations.