Power Outages and Outage Safety

1. What Causes a Power Outage?
   A variety of factors can cause power outages. Small animals, like squirrels, sometimes chew into lines or come into contact with a piece of equipment and an energized line, which results in their demise and likely a power interruption for you. Severe weather, including wind, snow, ice and lightning, also leads to unplanned power outages. Equipment failure, tree contacts and damage caused by excavations can also lead to unplanned power outages.
2. Sometimes the power goes out for just a second or two, why is that?
   Usually, an Auto-Reclosure (A/R) event causes this kind of outage. An A/R is a safety protection feature built in to protect equipment and even people. When a fault current is sensed, the station breaker will open (power goes off) for a split second to clear the fault. The station breaker automatically tries to close back in (power goes on) and if the fault has cleared, power will stay on. Lightning or tree contacts on a windy day can cause fault currents. Sadly, most often, animal contacts such as squirrels or raccoons cause A/Rs. To help decrease the danger to animals and reduce the number of unplanned outages caused by animal contacts, we install animal guarding on our equipment. Animal guards are attached above pole-top transformers. These cone-shaped guards save the lives of hundreds of animals across our service territory every year

Power Outage Safety Tips

If the power does go out at your home or business, there are several things you can do to help avoid electrical hazards and ensure our crews can work safely as they try to restore your power and repair damaged equipment:

• Do not touch downed or low-hanging wires. Always assume that downed powerlines are live. Call 9-1-1 to report the issue and remain at least 10 metres (the length of a full-sized school bus) away from downed powerlines at all times. Learn more by watching this helpful animated video.
• Do not use a portable generator or barbeque indoors. This is dangerous and could cause carbon monoxide poisoning.
• If a powerline falls on a vehicle you are in and you can’t drive away from it, stay inside the vehicle until help arrives. If you have to get out for safety reasons, such as fire, jump clear without touching the car and the ground at the same time. Watch this video for more information on how to exit the vehicle safely.
• Be sure to turn off any electronics and appliances that were on before the power went out. This includes stoves, small appliances and electric heaters or fireplaces.
• Never walk into areas where powerline technicians are working. If you are driving near work crews, follow road signs, avoid distractions and proceed cautiously so our crews can continue working to repair damage to the distribution system.
• Use flashlights, LED lights or lamps or smartphone flashlights instead of candles. If you have to use candles, never leave them burning if you’re not monitoring them.
• Avoid opening your fridge or freezer. Keep your fridge closed to maintain temperatures. Have water outside of the fridge in an accessible location and make sure everyone knows where this is.

Additional Outage Safety Resources

We want to help you learn as much as you can about power outage safety. Below is a short list of resources that can assist you during a power outage:

1. The Electrical Safety Authority has a dedicated Power Outage and Electrical Safety page, containing information on staying safe during outages and getting repairs made once the outage is over.
2. Check this infographic to learn how power is restored following an outage.
3. Visit the Region of Waterloo’s Emergency Preparedness page