Two people in high visibility safety gear work on a distribution line from a bucket truck.
We may need to take more planned outages in your neighbourhood as an added safety step. Here’s why.
When our crews perform maintenance on power lines, they often do so with the power on, so we don’t interrupt your service.
They have the right equipment and training to do this work safely, which is our top priority. But many of our power lines are several decades old, installed in the 1950s or even earlier. They may have been weakened by wear and corrosion. They still operate safely, but handling these older lines while energized presents a greater risk to our employees.
So as an additional safety precaution, we are taking a planned outage in the immediate area whenever we need to work on an older power line. As a result, you might notice a few more outages in your neighbourhood.
This added safety measure is the industry standard in North America, where many utilities have power lines that are several decades old.
We appreciate that these power outages are inconvenient. But it’s much safer for everyone. And we will do our best to minimize the inconvenience by keeping you informed when these planned outages are happening.
They usually are scheduled in the daytime during the work week when fewer people are at home. And they usually only last a few hours.
Safety – yours and ours – is our top priority.
