THUNDER BAY – Thunder Bay Hydro is reviewing statistics about the winter storm that took place on Tuesday, December 5, 2017. Trouble calls began at 4:25 am when light rain conditions turned to sticky snow and wind gusts created
TBHydro reports “Trouble calls began at 4:25 am when light rain conditions turned to sticky snow and wind gusts create the icing that took down power lines, pushed trees on lines and damaged electrical distribution equipment”.
All available crews were activated to respond to the storm and contractors were brought in to aid the effort. All major outages were restored by 9:16 pm. Restoration work on individual customers continued through the night.
Despite wind gusts that hampered repair work, technical upgrades to the distribution system that allowed for remote reconnection and rerouting of power to isolate trouble areas are credited with positioning the company to lessen the timeframe and impact of many of the electrical issues.
A challenge of note was work on a major system repair that was located just outside our sub-station that is the only conduit of power to the “East End” and a neighbourhood to the west.
This area is on the schedule for an upgrade beginning the summer of 2018 that will address the capacity to better isolate trouble spots and restore power more effectively.
Overall it is estimated that 11,000 customers were impacted for more than a few minutes in 167 separate power related incidents. At its height, 7500 customers were without power.
