MANITOULIN—Within a very short period late last week, Hydro One customers on Manitoulin were left in the dark following three unscheduled power outages.
The first outage, which took place on June 30 at 8:30 pm, left approximately 2,500 customers in Western Manitoulin without power until 9 am the following day.
According to Brian Dellandrea, customer operations manager with Hydro One for the area, the outage was caused due to equipment “going bad,” causing a hydro pole to burn. Crews worked to replace the faulty equipment and replace the pole.
On July 3 the power again went out at 2 am after a vehicle crashed into a hydro guywires. This outage affected 5,000 customers until power was restored by Hydro One crews at 8 am.
This same day, July 3, the lights were again dimmed at 11 pm until 1:20 am, affecting almost 2,000 customers. Mr. Dallandrea explained that this was the result of two “high side” fuses being blown at the Little Current station. He noted that this type of failure is typically caused by animal interference. “We can’t control animals or motor vehicle accidents,” he observed.
Mr. Dallandrea noted that Hydro One is in the process of changing wood poles to composite ones and said that forestry crews are currently working on Manitoulin to clear brush.
