Burning Down the Lines

When pilot Rob Leliever pointed his Hydro One helicopter towards the earth scorched by the Chapleau Fire, he knew he wasn’t alone in the sky.

Water bombers were still dousing the flames and a fixed-wing aircraft buzzed overhead, acting as the eye in the sky.

“In this environment the air space is under total control. We had a meeting on the ground with the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) beforehand and established constant communication lines, flight parameters and a very clear safety plan. We’re not allowed to fly into a fire without permission,” Leliever said. “We were in good shape.”

The same could not be said for the distribution system.

“When we flew over it was just black smouldering soot where the poles had been and wires lying on the ground,” he said.

Leliever was one of three pilots working the job with other staff from Provincial Lines and the Ontario Grid Control Centre, in concert with firefighters and MNR staff.

The Chapleau Fire was just one event in a summer of wicked weather: thunderstorms and tornadoes also took turns beating down our system.

The late-May forest fire in Wawa burned through 15 single and twin pole structures, causing a power outage lasting almost four days.

Hydro One’s emergency restoration crews are experts at restoring power to our customers. They respond quickly, restore power efficiently and work in harsh conditions – and Wawa was no exception. Except when they first arrived, they weren’t able to do what they do best: get to work.

The fire was still burning and MNR staff kept crews out of the area until the flames were under control. While residents of Chapleau sat in the dark as the fire continued to burn, Hydro One staged crews and materials so they were ready as soon as access was granted.

“The Ministry originally told us we could not have access,” said John Beach, Customer Operation Manager for Timmins. “We knew our customers were depending on us, so we stated the urgency to have the line repaired. The first thing we did was work with the Ministry on a safety plan since we were working so close to the fire. Our safety, training and communication systems at Hydro One assured the Ministry that we were able to react to any situation and able to evacuate the area quickly if required. Every employee signed their name in and out on the job site. We used a tracking system to account for every employee’s location.”

Late Saturday afternoon, the Ministry allowed crews access to the area.

“The fire was not completely out and water bombers could be seen in the distance,” said Beach. “The crews were working in smoky conditions and required monitoring. The Ministry gave us some tips on signs of distress due to smoke inhalation. Restoring power to the town of Chapleau as quickly as possible was our challenge; however, maintaining everyone’s safety throughout that process was our priority. We were only in there for a couple of hours before the Ministry directed us to evacuate.”

Two hours was all crews needed to establish a restoration plan, but before they could put the plan into action, the MNR pulled the plug, ordering the area evacuated. Yanked out before they could get the job done, the disappointment back at the hotel hung in the air – an unfinished job.

“The guys hated wasting the daylight, knowing that customers were counting on us to get the lights back on,” said Beach.

The Ministry granted access again on Sunday morning and by 6 a.m. crews were heading to the site, about 30 minutes east of Wawa. Sunday was a huge success and several structures were completed by noon. On Monday the repair work was completed and power was restored to all customers by 3 p.m.

Throughout the outage, Hydro One kept the media and customers, including the Chapleau Public Utilities Corporation and the Mayor of Chapleau, up to date on restoration efforts. The mayor visited the site and was impressed with the commitment Hydro One made to help his community get back in service.

“You could see from the damage that this was a big piece of work getting the power back on. We appreciated the effort,” said Mayor Earle Freeborn of Chapleau.

What happens when the power goes out?

When the electricity goes out, we have a six-step recovery plan in place to restore power to our customers as quickly and safely as possible.

1. Notify

Often, we first learn about a power outage when someone calls our Customer Communications Centre, which is open 24 hours a day, all year round. An electronic “outage report” is created for the call, and automatically sent to the Ontario Grid Control Centre. From there, the appropriate local Operation Centre is notified and a crew is sent out to assess the situation.

2. Emergency Restoration

We receive many calls during an outage and they are addressed in order of priority. Our first priority is to respond to 911 emergencies like fires or live lines that are down. We then focus on restoring electricity to essential services such as hospitals, fire and police stations, and water and sewage treatment facilities.

3. Prioritize

Guided by the rule “do the greatest good for the greatest number,” we repair large system elements that serve a large number of customers, and then move on to repair individual lines serving individual customers.

4. Mobilize

We assess the nature and extent of the storm-related damages so that we can quickly mobilize and deploy human and equipment resources from across the province, if needed, to the storm- damaged area.

5. Communicate

During a power outage, Hydro One repair crews keep the Ontario Grid Control Centre up to date on their progress. The Corporate Communications department issues media releases and answers calls from the media, setting expectations and giving Estimated Times of Restoration when possible. Outage updates can be checked on our website or by phone.

6. Finish the Job

Our crews, management and dis-patchers stay on the job until we have restored power to everyone. Then we revisit any temporary repairs and help communities clean up after the storm.