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Reasons for power outages

We collect information on outages to determine how we can improve reliability. Improvements include:

• replacing the older parts of our system;
• making greater use of technology to help us respond to outages more quickly;
• installing animal guards on equipment where there’s been outages due to wildlife contact;
• trimming trees in areas that have a high number of outages due to branches contacting lines.

Recently there’s been more outages caused by agricultural, construction, and snow removal equipment that has come into contact with a power line or wood pole. As a result we have developed safety programs for customers who use large and heavy motor vehicles.

The most common reasons for power outages in Manitoba:

1. Bad weather, lightning, tree contacts (33%)
   • high winds that bring down trees and branches and cause them to contact power lines;
   • lightning hitting power lines or other equipment;
   • heavy snow or ice on power lines can cause them to break;
   • wood pole or structure fire.
2. Equipment failure, adverse environment (33%)
   • downed power lines;
   • a broken or fallen pole, or old infrastructure;
   • faulted transformer, failed line fuse, or a problem at a substation;
   • equipment failure due to technical problems within the equipment or abnormal environmental conditions (fire, flood, corrosion).
3. Things coming into contact with our power lines (15%)
   • animals can cause short circuits by contacting power lines or other equipment;
   • birds landing on power lines or transformers can trip fuses;
   • objects, such as shoes or kites, hanging from power lines;
   • vehicle collisions with power lines, poles, or other equipment;
   • heavy equipment, such as a crane at a construction site, coming into contact with a power line;
   • cut underground wires by digging without proper line locations and clearances.