By Brian Tapley
The most recent Muskoka-wide storm resulted in many power outages.
I can sympathize with the task Hydro One is facing to restore the power BUT, and it is a big but, I see slower response times to correct and repair outages now than we used to see in the past.
Hydro has more equipment now than ever in history but somewhere in the triage of what to fix first the system seems to break down. For example, Port Cunnington peninsula was ‘off’ on Saturday because of trees on lines. Okay, I get that, but I took a drive and the majority of the peninsula could have been back on if just two trees were removed and two wires spliced and put back up. These are right beside the road and a single bucket truck and pickup crew of four or five people could have fixed this in the early morning. However, as of 7 pm Saturday night nobody was on site doing anything.
Even if they did not fix the tree issue they could have powered up a lot of the peninsula by opening some switches and resetting others. All that would need is a pickup truck and a hot stick to do this job.
But nobody was on site, at all.
Now, I know they are busy; there are other problems. However, Port Cunnington Lodge alone had nearly 200 guests, all in the dark, and cancellations were pouring in. Not good for business at all.
I find that nowadays Hydro seems to pounce on the worst area with all their resources. They do a great fix up job in one area and then move on to the next. Great, but maybe that’s not the best way to get power back for as many as possible as quickly as possible.
It seems hard to believe that with such a clearly defined problem they could not find an extra pickup and a bucket truck to at least start sorting out the mess. A small crew could get a lot of the power back up and sort out the exact needs to restore the more damaged areas and communicate this data to the control office. This would save time!
Time is of the essence here. That line where they charge you for “delivery” on your bill starts to look a little silly when a single tree means 48 hours without power and not a Hydro One worker on site.
I don’t fault the actual workers in the coveralls… when they get there they do a good job, often in bad conditions. However, somewhere up that chain of command between the folks on the ground and the people sitting in some executive suite with a million dollar (literally) pay cheque, there is a break down of the system.
It used to be quicker. There is every reason it should be even quicker now with wireless communication and computer assistance, but it fails miserably almost every time the power is off. It needs to be improved!
If they are going to charge the fees they do for “delivery” then they should “deliver”!
I note also that the outage map on the internet seems to be a bit off the mark and suffers a bit of a reality disconnect. This map is a good idea but it too needs to be improved.
With OEB hearings for a coming rate increase this might be a good time to look closely at the actual service being provided. It needs to be better as in this day and age electricity is a necessity of business.
Brian Tapley attended school at Port Cunnington, then Irwin Memorial in Dwight, then Huntsville High, and then Queen’s University, where he graduated 1973 as a Mechanical Engineer. He worked for Kimberly-Clark for a short time before ‘retiring’ to help his aging parents run the family resort, Bondi Village Cottage Resort in Dwight. Brian, who says he’s getting old, too, is joined at the resort by his son and his lovely wife, as they start to take over the reins. “We have been here since my grandfather purchased the original farm in 1905 and I always add that we have managed this feat despite the best efforts of our various governments to help us out.”
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That was quite storm on Friday evening. Strong wind and pounding rain.
Yet the phone and internet hung in thru all of it even though the electricity went out about 2100.
The electricity came back about 0330. Then about 1030 the phone and internet went dead.
After some thinking how to get Bell repair without a Bell phone, I recall that 310-BELL will reach bell.
I contacted repair services and was told that it was a cable problem and that the problem would be fixed by 2200 on Monday.
I was not aware of any Hydro One lines down in this immediate area and went on a sleuthing exercise. Bell has a remote repeater station in behind Brooklin Concrete. When I arrived there I found a large tree had fallen and disconnected the electrical supply to the Bell building, likely around 2100 Friday and in 12 hours their backup batteries had run down.
I tried phoning Bell repair on this Saturday evening but the repair service effectively shuts down after 1900. I eventually found a live Bell voice but all he would do is repeat the cable technicians will look into it Sunday. I tried to get a bell manager but I would likely have had more luck finding a gold brick in the median of Highway 11.
Sunday morning at 0730, still no landline or internet which comes over the Bell cable even though I have Vianet.
Sunday afternoon I drove out to the remote repeater and the live lines were still on the ground but there is now a generator supplying the building.
I presume my message about no power did get thru to someone.
You may want to express your dissatisfaction to Bell for their lack of effective trouble shooting. Surely they must have a remote alarm when the power goes off to the building.
I know the remote repeater was there as I worked for Bell one summer in 1964 and covered this entire area.
Bell seemed unresponsive and as if they did not care. The was not a Hydro One problem but an issue that Bell did not know their power was off.