Submitted by Hydro One
Hydro One is advising residents in the Muskoka region of a planned outage required to complete much-needed upgrades to modernize the grid and replace aging infrastructure. This is part of Hydro One’s recently announced plan to invest approximately $16 million in new technologies and additional maintenance in the region to improve reliability in the Muskoka region.
Hydro One crews will install six smart switches which will limit the amount of customers impacted by outages and improve power restoration times. We know that any outage causes a disruption for our customers, particularly outages of this length, which is why all available crews will be working to bundle all required work in the region and replace aging equipment.
Approximately 80 highly skilled power line workers will replace poles, transformers and install smart-switches which can be controlled by Hydro One’s Ontario Grid Control Centre. Due to the wide span of work totaling 80 kilometres, crews will use special off-road equipment and a helicopter to conduct the upgrades as quickly as possible.
Outage 1 on October 27, 2019 from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. will impact approximately 2,000 residential customers and 2,400 seasonal customers in the townships of Franklin, Brunel, Lake of Bays, Mcclintock, Finlayson, Chaffey, Ridout, Peck, Chapman, and Hunter.
Outage 2 on October 27, 2019 from 7 a.m. to noon will impact approximately 3,923 residential customers and 4,670 seasonal customers in the townships of Monck, Humphrey, Medora, Cardwell, Watt, Muskoka, Stephenson, Seguin, Mckellar, Monteith, Croft, Armour, Strong, Ryerson, Chapman, Joly, Magnetawan, Laurier. During this outage, parts of Lakeland Power Distribution’s service territory will also be impacted in Burk’s Falls and Sundridge
We appreciate everyone’s patience as our crews work as safely and as quickly to complete this important work.
Hydro One customers requiring additional information can call 1-888-664-9376.
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It’s important keep in mind that when the power goes out, the sump pump goes off too!
I like the idea of the Smart Switches being installed since in the event of a drastic power interruption, the number of incidences without power is minimized.
BTW, I find the rates quite reasonable, more so since The Liberals aren’t moving Gas Plants around like checkers and the Conservatives firing CEO;s who made shameful salaries!
Well the power outage planned in my area never happened.
I guess the rain made the work dangerous.
Will we be notified on Doppler again about outages or all of a sudden
the lights go out. Maybe the problems will not be fixed in time?
Time to change the oil and filter in the generator. Lol.
Facts I read are these: “Off-peak hours will increase by 3.6 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) to 10.1¢/kWh, mid-peak by five cents to 14.4 ¢/kWh, and on-peak by 7.4 cents to 20.8¢/kWh.
In a media release, the OEB said that “The total bill for a typical residential customer who uses 700 kWh per month will increase by about $1.99 or 1.8 per cents.” If yours are doubling maybe you have not paid your bill for 6 months !! LOL
What amuses me is people will pay $400.00 or $500.00 for a new car but complain like hell about a $200.00 hydro bill. Just stop and think just what hydro does for you it keeps you warm in winter cool in summer cooks you meals and if your in the country it pumps you water and heats it. I hate paying for it just as much as anyone but until you have to live without it you’ll never realize just how much you need it.
Does your mechanic pay you for not having the use of your car when it’s in the shop? Does your doctor pay you for a day of missed work when you go see him? I’m not entirely sure why people seem to think Hydro one always owes them for something when the power goes out due to repairs…..just turn off your meter and you’ll never have to worry about them again.
Is there anything we can do? Seems we can only accept what’s inevitable.
I think Hydro One s/b providing a credit to all the folks without hydro for the day.
Thanks Wayne. Someone finally got it right. The smoke screen only blinds some not all!
When you do the math the new rate is about 40% more than the old excluding any rebate that will come for any source, that is a reality. The problem with this new reality is that if and when any support from any government is rolled back or removed we are left with a massive increase that most likely will remain as these types of massive increases rarely are retracted once their budgets depend on the extra cash flow. Yes, we need lots of work done especially in rural areas but this is an insane increase no matter how you want to spin it.
Thanks Erin for your voice of knowledge and reason. Thanks to misinformed and selfie loving voters we now have the mess we have in Ottawa
Blame the tax-and-spend Liberals for the increase, not the Conservatives, who are attempting to bring fiscal sanity back to the Provincial government.
The rates really aren’t “doubling”, Ralph. They are increasing so that billing relief can be given to those who need it. Even then, most ordinary power users will only see an increase of approximately $1.99 on their bills. There are fixed costs included in our bills which should remain unchanged. This is hardly a case of having “money for food or hydro”. As stated before, there are programs in place to ease the burden for the poor and elderly–that is the reason for the increase.
It is not helpful to misrepresent the facts. Yes, prices will tend to creep upward as long as government wasteful spending continues. That is why Ford was elected–to rein in the extravagant spending of the tax-and-spend Liberals. It was the Liberals–who rewarded their fat-cat friends at the high end of the Provincial government food chain and chalked up enormous debt that necessitates cutbacks. That debt has to be paid (with interest) since we don’t have a printing press such as the federal Liberals employ. That leaves much less money for needed programs such as the current electricity bill relief for the poor and the elderly–and all other similar programs.
Hydro should be doing lots of upgrades they will be able
to afford it when our hydro rates double November 1st.
Thanks Mr. Ford!
Now that our hydro rates are about to double on November 1st I guess
they can afford it! Back to money for food or hydro. Choose one.