News Releases

Hydro One confirms details of early morning power "blip"

January 30, 2007 — On Tuesday, January 30th at 6:22 a.m., Hydro One experienced an equipment failure at its Richview Transformer Station. A capacitor bank which was coming online to increase voltage to respond to demand during the early morning peak failed causing a momentary drop in voltage or "blip in power". The faulted equipment was isolated immediately and removed from service.

Hydro One estimates the blip lasted less than 1/5 of a second.

Both residential and industrial customers may have been affected by the blip. Electronic systems sensitive to voltage fluctuations may have been affected.

The failure of the capacitor bank resulted in a fire at Hydro One's Richview Station. Hydro One personnel were on scene at the time of the incident and followed established emergency and safety procedures and contacted local fire officials. Emergency crews extinguished the fire by 7:30 a.m.. Local police, also on scene, have ruled out criminal activity.

There has been no additional impact to the power supply system as a result of this morning's incident. The cause of the equipment failure is under investigation.

Hydro One delivers electricity safely, reliably and responsibly to homes and businesses across the province of Ontario and owns and operates Ontario's 29,000 kilometre high-voltage transmission network that delivers electricity to large industrial customers and municipal utilities, and a 122,000 kilometre low-voltage distribution system that serves about 1.3 million end-use customers and smaller municipal utilities in the province. Hydro One is wholly owned by the Province of Ontario.

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For more information, contact Hydro One Media Relations 24 hours a day at 1-877-506-7584 (toll-free in Ontario only) or 416-345-6868. Our website is www.HydroOne.com.