Toronto Hydro criticized over blackout

ONTARIO - Toronto Hydro is facing criticism for the recent blackout across a five-block chunk of downtown, which the utility says might have been caused by flooding.

"We're going to always get rain, we're always going to get snow, we're going to get winds," said Lawrence Solomon, executive director of the group Energy Probe. "It's the utility's responsibility to look after it."

Toronto Hydro blames the 13-hour electrical outage on equipment failure at a downtown transformer at John and Wellington streets. But Solomon said the power company needs to protect its equipment — something it would do better if it had to compensate customers for outages, as is the case in Britain.

"Toronto Hydro doesn't need to be accountable to its customers because it doesn't face any penalties if it provides customers with poor service," Solomon said.

Because of the British compensation rules, blackouts seldom occur in London, he said.

Power outages in Toronto, by contrast, are becoming almost commonplace.

In July, more than 200,000 customers lost power on one of the hottest days of the summer when a transformer caught fire. And much of the downtown was left without electricity one day in June when an underground cable failed.

Much of the equipment making up the Toronto grid is more than a half-century old and close to the end of its useful life. Unless those aging parts are replaced, power outages will be more frequent, said University of Toronto engineering professor Reza Iravani.

"As the components get older and older, the possibility of failure of each component is going to increase," Iravani said.

Toronto Hydro said it continues to investigate the exact cause of the blackout. The company also said it's looking at long-term solutions to ensure the lights don't go out as often.

Related News

Electricity turns garbage into graphene

LONDON - Science doesn’t usually take after fairy tales. But Rumpelstiltskin, the magical imp who spun straw into gold, would be impressed with the latest chemical wizardry. Researchers at Rice University report today in Nature that they can zap virtually any source of solid carbon, from food scraps to old car tires, and turn it into graphene—sheets of carbon atoms prized for applications ranging from high-strength plastic to flexible electronics. Current techniques yield tiny quantities of picture-perfect graphene or up to tons of less prized graphene chunks; the new method already produces grams per day of near-pristine graphene in the…

READ MORE
new york city at night

What Will Drive Utility Revenue When Electricity Is Free?

READ MORE

connexus solar workers

How ‘Virtual Power Plants’ Will Change The Future Of Electricity

READ MORE

EDF isrish deal

Utility giant Electricite de France acquired 50pc stake in Irish offshore wind farm

READ MORE

Lliam Hildebrand

Opinion: Fossil-fuel workers ready to support energy transition

READ MORE