Brief power outage affects 5,500
HOWARD COUNTY, MARYLAND - The 5,500 Howard County residents who lost power the morning of July 2 have a squirrel to thank.
"Believe it or not, that's not that uncommon," said Duke Energy spokeswoman Angeline Protogere. "A squirrel interfered with some of the equipment," she said. The squirrel caused a power shortage at one of the substations located at 401 S. Main St., Protogere said.
The power shortage occurred just before 9 a.m. Many facilities restored power within about an hour. The shortage affected nearly 2,000 people in Kokomo and nearly 3,600 in the surrounding area. In total, 5,564 lost power.
In the meantime, local law enforcement is trying to get stop signs to the traffic lights that are still out, Police Sgt. Jeff McKay said. Anytime a traffic light is out, McKay said the intersection should be treated as a four-way stop.
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Ontario, Quebec to swap energy in new deal to help with electricity demands
TORONTO - Ontario and Quebec have agreed to swap energy to help each other out when electricity demands peak.
The provinces' electricity operators, the Independent Electricity System Operator and Hydro-Quebec, will trade up to 600 megawatts of energy each year, said Ontario Energy Minister Todd Smith.
“The deal just makes a lot of sense from both sides,” Smith said in an interview.
“The beauty as well is that Quebec and Ontario are amongst the cleanest grids around.”
The majority of Ontario's power comes from nuclear energy while the majority of Quebec's energy comes from hydroelectric power.
The deal works because Ontario and Quebec's energy peaks…
