Windy winter storm puts hydro utilities on high alert

Water utilities say preparations for the winter storm that will hit eastern Ontario over the next 48 hours are aided by recent experiences, including last spring’s Derecho storm.

Joseph Muglia, director of systems operations and grid automation at Hydro Ottawa, said on-call teams have been ordered into 24-hour rotations to respond to any issues.

“We hope we don’t have any long-term failures, but it’s always possible,” Muglia said.

A winter storm vigil issued on Wednesday remains in effect Thursday for the areas around Ottawa, Gatineau, Belleville, Quinte, Northumberland, Brockville, Leeds and Grenville, Kingston, Prince Edward County, Peterborough, Kawartha Lakes, and Prescott and Russell.

Rain warnings were issued Thursday for the areas of Belleville, Quinte, Northumberland, Brockville, Leeds and Grenville, Kingston, Prince Edward County, Stirling, Tweed and South Frontenac, Environment Canada said early Thursday morning. About 20 to 30 millimeters of rain and melting snow are expected through Friday noon, with the possibility of localized flooding in low-lying areas.

Winter storm warnings were also issued for the Renfrew, Pembroke, Barry’s Bay, Peterborough, Smiths Falls, Lanark and Sharbot Lake areas early Thursday.

“Snow, heavy at times, is expected to start [Thursday] Evening. As a cold front moves through the area on Friday afternoon, rapidly falling temperatures and wind gusts of up to 70 km/h will lead to local blowing snow. Snow and local blowing snow will continue through Saturday,” Environment Canada said.

“We put a lot of additional preparatory work into the planning for this. We will try to minimize outages as much as possible,” Muglia said.

Tiziana Baccega Rosa, spokeswoman for Hydro One, said wind gusts of over 80 km/h could damage infrastructure.

“We know from experience that there are failures in strong winds,” said Baccega Rosa.

More than 200,000 people in the Ottawa area were without power after the May 2022 derecho. In September 2018, tornadoes sent six people to the hospital and left 3,600 Hydro Ottawa customers without power for a weekend.

Hydro One continues to review its infrastructure as “the impact of climate change on our system changes,” Baccega Rosa said, “whether that’s bigger, stronger, different bars of material, or how the stations are designed,” Baccega Rosa said.

The Ontario Department of Transportation said it was preparing to keep roads as clear as possible during the snowfall. In a statement, the ministry said it had “over 1,100 pieces of equipment ready for use”.

It also proactively uses anti-icing fluid on roads ahead of winter storms.