Unplanned Outages

When Thunder Bay Hydro employees are working to maintain lines, we will notify customers in various ways to let them know about the work:

• ads in newspapers in wider areas
• household notifications for projects in neighbourhoods
• door to door notice for smaller, specific interruptions

Often, we have no control over an outage that takes place because of:

• Storms, lightening, high winds
• Downed lines due to vehicle accidents
• Loss of supply from Hydro One
• Auto-reclose incidents for system safety

What is an 'auto-reclose'?

Auto-reclose incidents are one of the main reasons for short periods of power loss.

Electricity can seriously injure or even kill. When an object such as a tree, bird or animal touches the overhead wires in such a way that grounding occurs, a fuse will open up and cut power to allow for the object to clear the line.  The fuse will then close and power is restored. 

In cases where the line is still interfered with, the fuse will open again and a Thunder Bay Hydro crew is sent to the area. 

Unfortunately, whether the outage is a second or several minutes, customers who do not have battery backup on appliances or equipment are frustrated by the need to reset clocks and timers.

Thunder Bay Hydro has implemented an aggressive tree trimming program to address the issue of trees contacting power lines. See Tree Trimming.

Our Conditions of Service do not guarantee uninterrupted flow of power. For this reason, customers need to take precautions to prepare for the likelihood of power loss to minimize the impact. You may wish to consult an electrician or computer expert to determine the best strategy to meet your needs.

Learn more about how to prepare for a power outage.

This page last updated 2012-02-06.