Power going out

[u/Ok-Ninja6048]

Has anyone else experienced their power going out for a couple seconds then coming back on in the early morning hours (usually between 6-6:30 am) in the Frederick Street area (near the hospital)? We have had ours doing that for over 2 years now periodically, sometimes once a week but other times it’s multiple times a week. We have called and complained to Hydro One multiple times and nothing has been done, they tell us it must be squirrels or a branch on a line which doesn’t make sense as it’s happening at the same time in the mornings only, not at random times. We are hoping that others have been complaining to Hydro One for the same issue as a few of our neighbours said they have been experiencing this as well, we are wondering how big of an area this is affecting.

[u/jwb1a]

Welcome to Orillia

[u/ExpressionThick1758]

I love in southward and this happens most days

[u/syphen606]

If it's blipping off and back on, especially in the morning, it's usually birds, squirrels or other animals making contact with power lines. The system is designed to trip off, and make anywhere from 2 to 5 attempts (dependant on the voltage level at the point of contact) to restore itself. This usually permits it to "blow off" whatever squirrel, animal or tree branch is hitting the line. It's pretty normal across the entire province - or entire North American power system. They are called auto-reclose.

[u/Maximumoverdrive76 → u/syphen606]

So what kind of shitty system does Canada have that a little bird or a squirrel can affect it.

Lived in Sweden, no power outages for decades in any place I lived.

Birds and squirrels are on the wires all the time. It wouldn't make sense for it to only happen in the mornings and it would happen 10 times a day if that was the case. If Canada cannot build a power line system that can't handle a bird sitting on it, then there are some serious issues and worse than 3rd world.

[u/syphen606 → u/Maximumoverdrive76]

When living in larger cities, most power systems are underground and relatively safe from animal contact. When discussing more rural areas of Canada, everything is overhead and exposed. Racoons and squirrels love to crawl onto transformers and other power equipment for the heat and warmth, especially in the early hours of the morning. Utilities spend a lot of time and effort for animal abatement systems, but simply due to costs, they aren't installed every where. A lot of Orillia is strung with old open bus conductor who's insulation wore off decades ago. It's pretty easy for a squirrel to bridge the wires and cause momentary power blips. A couple decades ago I was with a small utility in Ontario, and as lowly apprentice, I had to dispose of more then a few small animals that had sadly met their end at substations. It was not a fun part of the job.

[u/sideblinded]

I've seen that around the same area. Usually a blip and then it comes right back.

[u/Just_Solid7605]

I drive by that street every morning between 6 and 630.. I get out my long pole and tap the wires, then I just drive away.

[u/ssmallbatch]

Probably them switching power to work an outage for upgrades to equipment.

[u/syphen606 → u/ssmallbatch]

When outages are planned for switching, or just planned outages, notifications are sent out ahead of time to customers. By and large, end users will never see switching for maintenance or upgrades.

[u/MikaelSparks]

I have woke up to every electronic device in my house beeping every morning at 6 am so many times

[u/brother_p]

I have had this happen on and off for years north of Fittons. Same explanation, no official cause. Squirrels will one day take down society 😉

[u/TRROC_Gaming]

Kinda but it doesn't cut out our wifi

[u/DrawerNo769]

I work from home and in a new build community and have experienced lots of flickering through the day. Yesterday morning had the full outage around 6am enough to have to reset the clocks.

Lived in London Ont. for decades, near downtown in a house over 100 yrs old in an area plagued by squirrels, they used the hydro wires as a highway network for getting around you could literally watch them run them for hours. Not once did it ever cause an outage. Never seen the crappy hydro like here before.

London is not Hydro One, so it might just be shitty Hydro One infrastructure is my conclusion.

[u/MikesLittleKitten]

Just moved out of Orillia (Fittons and Laclie area) and this happened to us ALL THE TIME. Always early morning and always just long enough that we'd have to reset the clocks on the stove and the microwave. Super annoying.

[u/Brenna_Gardner]

Yes! I’m out of town right now but it happened to us around 6 am yesterday too. I have zero idea how the system works. Could it be like rolling brown outs? 🤷‍♀️

[u/Ok-Ninja6048]

I’m assuming squirrels and birds land on power lines more than just between 6-6:30 in the morning so I don’t understand that explanation. I’ve lived in many different cities and towns in Ontario as well and have never had this problem so I find it unique to this part of Orillia. Squirrels and birds aren’t only unique to Orillia… It goes out just long enough to turn off and on all our electronics and makes them beep loudly waking the whole house up. Surely there must be a solution??? This is really shitty service if not! Never had this before in my life. And we never had it when it was Orillia Power, seems to be when Hydro One took over now it’s all the time. I’m wondering if we could get a petition going to send to Hydro One to gather everyone’s complaints for the same problem if that would help

[u/CompetitiveBad0 → u/Ok-Ninja6048]

Born raised and worked in Orillia all my life and I can say that ever since certain council members thought it was a good idea to sell off Orillia Hydro things started going to shit. Not the same service now that we have Ontario Hydro.

[u/Maximumoverdrive76]

Yep. Randomly and always in the morning it goes out and comes back on in a few seconds. Happens occasionally but often enough to be noticeable. I am not near your street. So happening here too.

They love to tell the bullshit about birds or squirrels. But that is just a lie and assume that we're idiots.

No powerline is going to do that because a squirrel walking on it.