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Power restored to 150,000 customers affected by August 2 storm

August 11, 2006 — Hydro One confirms it has restored power to almost all customers who had their power interrupted by the severe storm that tore through Ontario last week. According to Environment Canada, winds above 120 km/h were recorded and at least eight tornadoes touched down over a 90-minute period.

As of 8:30 this morning, 239 customers remained without power with crews scheduled to restore the remaining customers by this evening.

This storm - and the July 17 storm that preceded it - caused the most damage to Hydro One's system since the 1998 ice storm.
"There is still a lot of work left to be done to restore our system to its full strength, but we're back to delivering the electricity our customers count on," said Myles D'Arcey, Senior Vice President, Customer Operations, Hydro One. "We appreciate how patient our customers have been and understand how difficult this has been for them."

At the height of the restoration effort, more than 1,000 Hydro One employees worked to repair widespread damage. Hydro One would like to thank the local distribution companies who sent their employees to help us restore our customers safely and efficiently.

The hardest hit areas were Minden, Bracebridge and Bancroft, but major damage extended across Ontario's Cottage Country.
Hydro One estimates that the work required to address the impact of severe, back-to-back summer storms is equal to the amount of system improvement work it would undertake in one year.

The company will continue to treat emergency and storm restoration work as its highest priority, moving crews from across the province into the most impacted areas. Given the sustained pressure on its resources, the company will need to reschedule work for individual customers, including those requiring new power hook-ups.

This week, Hydro One crews also completed repair work on the damage to 500,000 volt transmission lines and towers north of Barrie. This line is a major connection between hydroelectric generation in Northern Ontario and major centres in Southern Ontario.

For the most recent information on power outages go to www.HydroOneNetworks.com.

Hydro One owns and operates Ontario's 28,400 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 1.2 million end-use customers and smaller municipal utilities in the province. Hydro One is wholly owned by the Ontario Government.

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