February 23, 2024
Our local hydro company representatives came to present “how to make our network more resilient to power outages.” Close to forty people attended the information session held at the community center.
Sarah, the hydro person responsible for “community outreach,” introduced Joe, who introduced himself as the person responsible for metering and substations. Before he arrived at our community center, he said he drove around our neighborhood to check it out. He said our neighborhood is very nice; I am unsure what he meant by that or his comment’s purpose. Was he trying to butter us up in case he expected some people to be critical and unpleasant?
The slide presentation he attempted to give was interrupted immediately by a booming voice in the back row asking why we still have above-ground wiring: he said twenty years ago, he attended a similar meeting where hydro promised to bury all the lines. Well, the six hydro representatives at the meeting did not have an answer. Some discussion of costs ensued, but it is not quite accurate that the wiring is not underground; in my area, the wires are buried, and perhaps the property developments before our subdivision did not have the benefit of underground wiring. Joe should have had a map showing the wires above and underground in our mixed neighborhood.
Joe had very few slides, and I cannot recall more than half a dozen. The first one showed a geographic map of our area. Following it was a map of the hydro network in the area, with the hydro lines following the streets but without indicating where the lines were buried. The most interesting for me was the slide showing the number of power outages by year and type since 2019. Unfortunately, it was unclear whether the data was for the entire city or our area alone. According to the data, the most common outages result from equipment failure, followed by trees falling on the wires.
I never thought we had a problem with outages; I remember a storm in July 2023 when we lost power for ten hours and had a fine breakfast at a restaurant with backup power. The derecho was a major storm with power outages when we lost the food in the freezer worth a few hundred dollars in 2022. And before that, we had a major ice storm in 1999 when we lost power for a few days. I cannot recall power outages before the ice storm. So, are outages becoming more frequent? I do not know and did not get an answer at this meeting.
But Joe could not present his slides; the next interruption came from the back row, again, someone demanding: “How come the Loblaws store and Denny’s restaurant kept power while we, the residents, were without power last year?” The answer to me was obvious: a grocery store and a restaurant would have backup power, or maybe those establishments are on different hydro lines from ours. Unfortunately, Joe could not give us the answer or even an explanation.
Another person asked how much capacity he could or should install on his roof via solar panels to avoid relying on hydro in the future. The questions came fast, and at one time, I thought of getting up and asking people to hold their questions to the end of Joe’s presentation. But that was the job of the community outreach person, and Sarah could not control the meeting.
Towards the end of the meeting, I learned that “resilience” will be enhanced by “infrared monitoring” of the power equipment that anticipates and identifies equipment failure before it happens. Hydro also has a “tree pruning” program. Although these initiatives are good, I wondered if Hydro had a planned annual maintenance program funded and completed each year. Or did Hydro practice breakdown maintenance? And, has Hydro not had a tree pruning program before? So, what is new here except the infrared monitoring program? And more to the point, as far as I was concerned – what are those plans for our neighborhood? They sounded like system-wide plans to me that may or may not be used in our area soon!
Perhaps Hydro has fallen behind in maintenance in recent years, resulting in power outages. For example, hydro has wiring buried in our backyard on an easement that has not been replaced in fifty years. I do not know the standards for replacing wiring, but ground movements may break the insulation on wires, moisture gets in, and rust ensues. There must be standards for such items, which should be addressed in planned maintenance programs (just like when you get oil changes in your car – you don’t wait for it to break down). But when it comes to saving money, maintenance is the first to go.
I found the meeting disappointing; I learned little of substance. Hydro people did not provide the big picture, outlining that equipment is getting old and needs replacement, that the trees that people planted fifty years ago interfere with the wired infrastructure, and that people use more electricity than ever before, including EVs in the garages -all of which can lead to more frequent power interruptions, regardless of weather. I expected some trend analysis with supporting metrics as they affect our area. Specifically, I expected Hydro’s line-by-line itemization of what substation and line repairs and tree pruning Hydro will perform along specific streets over the next few years. Please provide us with some reassurance that Hydro is actively working towards building resilience via improved equipment, technology, and maintenance. We did not get that.
andrasthehun.ca 