thinkenergy shorts: shining the light on power outages
Description
| How can you prepare for the inevitability of a power outage? What role does your utility provider play in restoring power? How are they being proactive about future outages? In this episode of thinkenergy, host Trevor Freeman shines the light on power outages and the strategies used by utilities to manage them. Learn about preventive measures, emergency responses, and the tools Hydro Ottawa uses to restore power quickly and enhance grid resilience. Listen in. Related links ● Canadian Red Cross Emergency Preparedness Kit: https://www.redcross.ca/how-we-help/emergencies-and-disasters-in-canada/for-home-and-family/get-a-kit ● Hydro Ottawa Outage Centre: https://hydroottawa.com/en/outages-safety/outage-centre ● Hydro Ottawa Emergency Preparedness: https://hydroottawa.com/en/outages-safety/emergency-preparedness ● Trevor Freeman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-freeman-p-eng-cem-leed-ap-8b612114/ ● Hydro Ottawa: https://hydroottawa.com/en To subscribe using Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thinkenergy/id1465129405 To subscribe using Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7wFz7rdR8Gq3f2WOafjxpl To subscribe on Libsyn: http://thinkenergy.libsyn.com/ Subscribe so you don't miss a video: https://www.youtube.com/user/hydroottawalimited Follow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hydroottawa Stay in the know on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HydroOttawa Keep up with the posts on X: https://twitter.com/thinkenergypod
Transcript: Trevor Freeman 00:07 Welcome to a think energy short hosted by me, Trevor Freeman. This is a bite sized episode designed to be a quick summary of a specific topic or idea related to the world of energy. This is meant to round out our collective understanding of the energy sector, and will complement our normal guest interview episodes. Thanks for joining and happy listening. Hey everyone, and welcome back, as you heard in the intro, this is a think energy short, so it'll just be me diving into a certain topic that helps round out our understanding of the energy world. Today, we're talking about something that we've all experienced or has affected us in one way or another. At some point power outages. So, a power outage is never fun. Nobody wants to go through that, but as we increasingly electrify our lives, they become more and more impactful when our mode of transportation and our method of heating and cooling our homes relies on electricity, we want that power back as soon as possible. Today, we're going to look at how utilities like Hydro Ottawa manage outages, from prevention to repairs so that we get power back on as soon as possible. Now here in Ottawa, we all know how unpredictable the weather can be. One minute it's a blizzard, the next it's sunny and 15 degrees outside, or vice versa. And over the past few years, we've seen it all from wild wind storms, everybody remembers the derecho, tornados, ice storms, floods, we've kind of run the gamut of weather, and that's going to continue as climate change changes our global weather patterns, we're going to see more and more extreme weather. So, this is a topic that's not going anywhere. It's also not just mother nature that's throwing us curveballs. Sometimes it's a squirrel or another animal that's, you know, causing mischief on our power lines, or a car that takes out a hydro pole, or just equipment reaching the end of its life. Whatever the cause, when the power goes out, all we want to know is one thing, when will it be back on? So today, we'll go behind the scenes a little bit and see how we tackle outages from start to finish. We'll look at the strategies that we use to prevent outages, the priorities that we follow during a storm, and the lessons learned to improve the grid for the future. So, let's dive in. The first topic is prevention. Now we can't predict all outages. For example, if it's animal interference or a car accident, we can't predict that. But, for weather related outages, you might be surprised to know that Hydro, Ottawa has a team monitoring the weather, 24/7. They're kind of like our weather detectives, and they look at forecasts and try to predict potential impacts to the grid related to weather. Even when the skies are clear, however, our crews are working hard to prepare ourselves for things like inclement weather. They're out there, inspecting lines, trimming trees and upgrading equipment. Think of it as giving our entire electrical system a regular health checkup. Speaking of health checkups, trees are a major culprit when it comes to outages, especially here in the Ottawa Valley, where we have so many trees and a lot of forested and wooded areas, which is great, it's why we love this area, but that can interfere with our power lines. So Hydro Ottawa has a team of dedicated arborists who work year-round to keep branches trimmed and clear of power lines. But sometimes there is a storm on the horizon, and that's when things kick into high gear. Our crews are put on standby. We alert our customers through email and text and social media in order to be as prepared as possible and let us respond quickly when an outage does happen. So, during the storm, when the storm hits and the power goes out, what happens then? While restoring power isn't as simple as just flipping a switch. Hydro Ottawa follows a carefully structured plan to ensure safety and that we get the lights back on as quickly as possible. Let's take the example of a major storm that has caused widespread outages across our service territory. Our first job is to investigate the extent of the damage and understand what's actually happened. Where is there damage on our system? Now when it comes to restoration, safety is our number one priority, so we want to address any hazards like downed power lines immediately, as soon as we find out about them, and that's both for the safety of the public and the safety of our crews. Now our crews may be out there even while the storm is still going on, so safety is absolutely paramount, and we ensure that they work safely. The next focus of ours would be critical infrastruc  Comments In Channel   Download from Google Play  Download from App Store  United States00:00 00:00 x   thinkenergy shorts: shining the light on power outages |