Failed insulators caused outage: Hydro One
Thousands went without electricity
Posted By RAYMOND BOWE
Updated 2 months ago
About 7,000 customers were affected by a mass power outage Thursday afternoon in the Barrie area, including a large portion of the city's south end.
John Olthuis, with PowerStream Barrie Hydro, said the electricity went out at 12:16 p.m.
The "live trip" occurred at the main Hydro One transformer station on Patterson Road, he said, knocking out five feeders that pump electricity into Barrie and the surrounding area.
Early speculation was that an animal had come into contact with the transformers, but that theory was soon proven incorrect.
"It was a series of failed insulators," Hydro One spokeswoman Daniele Gauvin said. "The equipment malfunctioned, so we are replacing some insulators.
"There was no animal contact," she said, adding it would be rare for wildlife to cause five feeders to go down.
Olthuis said two of the five feeders were back on line around 1 p.m., adding back-up generators also kicked in to provide electricity to customers.
Everyone was back on the grid shortly after 1 p.m., he said.
City police also dealt with the situation.
"It's widespread in the south end, with lots (of outages) in the Allandale area," Barrie police acting Sgt. Jennifer Caddell said earlier in the afternoon, adding most of the traffic lights have reverted to four-way flashers, while others weren't working at all.
Police later reported that no problems had been created by the mass outage.
City firefighters were not called into action, either.
rbowe@thebarrieexaminer.com
