Hydro One gives update to Amherstburg town council

A report from Hydro One officials regarding power outages and service to Amherstburg came at council’s most recent meeting.

Rachel Van Vraassen, Lei Zhu and Julia Baldessarra addressed town council at the April 27 meeting, a delegation council had requested several months ago due to multiple power outages in Amherstburg.

The goal, said Van Vraassen, was to walk town council through what Hydro One has done to strengthen reliability and what the company can do to help as Amherstburg grows. She reminded town council and the public Hydro One is one of the largest electricity transmission companies in Ontario, serving almost 1.5 million customers and covering almost 75 per cent of the geographic area of Ontario.

Hydro One is one of two utility companies serving Amherstburg, with Essex Powerlines being the other. Van Vraassen noted there are two distribution stations and 12 distribution powerlines. The two companies work together, she noted, as they have a “collaborative relationship” with Essex Powerlines. Hydro One’s regional operations centre is in Essex, she added.

“We know that safe and reliable service is important to our customers and understand even momentary interruptions are challenging,” said Van Vraassen.

Van Vraassen credited Deputy Mayor Chris Gibb for working with the Hydro One team on issues, including those pertaining to the Kingsbridge subdivision and surrounding areas. She said Hydro One has invested in new monitoring equipment in nine locations to quickly located outages. Other equipment upgrades include14 lightning arrestors and two switches being replaced.

Line inspections have been done, and that led to the arrestors and switches being upgraded. Vegetation management involving trees that contact wires has also been undertaken by Hydro One.

Van Vraassen said electricity demand in Ontario is increasing and Hydro One is developing “the largest investment plan in our history.”

“Serving the needs of the community means focusing on the needs of today and also planning for what the community needs tomorrow,” she said.

Van Vraassen said they want to work with Amherstburg to plan for future growth. Town council also heard recently from Essex Powerlines at the previous meeting about its plans for the future and developing a plan for growth.

Councillor Linden Crain noted the random flash power outages, and asked what the true cause is. Van Vraassen said a fall outage was due to “a combination of factors” such as equipment and vegetation. An inspection saw equipment and aging components replaced.

Councillor Diane Pouget noted council gets e-mail notifications and full details from Essex Powerlines, and wanted the same level of service from Hydro One. Van Vraassen said localized outages can be tracked through mobile updates through their outage map.

“When customers enroll, they receive notifications when outages occur, estimated restoration times and confirmation when power is restored,” she said, adding Hydro One asks customers to report power outages.

Hydro One works with mayors and CAO’s in attempts to be proactive during weather events.

Councillor Don McArthur wanted to know how to have people sign up for alerts, wanting the public to have the ability to do so. Van Vraassen said it could be done online or through Hydro One’s mobile app, but added her team could work with the town on how to relay that information.

Pouget said council is often told outages are the problems with hydro coming distances as far as LaSalle. She wanted to know of work done to avoid future outages, with Zhu responding that inspections were done and damaged equipment replaced. Vegetation work was also done, and he said they believe, through data received, there has been “a significant decrease” in outages.

Gibb thanked Baldesarra for being open and communicative, stating “I didn’t think it would be so easy to reach out to a massive corporation.” He believes issues in Kingsbridge have been alleviated and called for Hydro One to continue preventative maintenance programs. 

Mayor Michael Prue said the amount power goes out in Hydro One area is larger than Essex Powerlines areas, and looked for an explanation. Zhu said the supply comes from Windsor, noting it is a large distance to bring capacity to Essex Power’s lines. 

Prue wondered if routine checks are done to find aging equipment or whether the company waits for an outage. Zhu said sometimes assets are run until the end of life, based on economics, with other pieces of equipment replaced on a more consistent basis.The mayor added he has heard from residents who suffer from several lengthy outages weekly. He said there are people who don’t feel they are getting the level of attention or services they want, with Zhu wanting more precise information to see what is happening and find a solution.

Hydro One gives update to Amherstburg town council

By Ron Giofu