A failed riser cable is the culprit of last night's large power outage in Newmarket, which prompted concern from the community and a response from the power company and mayor.
About 7:30 p.m. Nov. 27, thousands of residents found themselves without power. While the unplanned outage was resolved in less than two hours, many residents took to social media to express their concern about the number of outages recently.
Residents in that same area also found themselves without power on Nov. 19 after another unplanned outage. Both outages are due to a faulty riser cable inside the transformer station, according to Newmarket-Tay Power CEO Ysni Semsedini.
"The cable faulted in both instances but didn’t do so catastrophically," he said.
He said the cause of the outbreak Nov. 19 could not be specifically pinpointed because the cables re-energized after the outage. However, crews last night were definitely able to determine a failed riser cable as the cause.
Some residents voiced concerns about the frequency of outages and lack of reliability on social media.
"Power is down AGAIN. Second time in a month. Without counting the times the power went down in the summer. It’s time for @NTPowerNews to provide answers. @_JohnTaylor Mr Mayor, would you please help us to find answers and to request a better service," one Twitter user said.
"Again?! What's going on? This is the 5th time this year and the 2nd time this month," another said.
Mayor John Taylor responded to some of the comments online and said a full analysis would be done about the cause of the outage, which has been completed. He said he understands residents' concerns.
"It affected my home, too. And, you know, nobody enjoys not having power. It can be frustrating, especially if you're in the middle of something important," he said.
Taylor said there has been more outages than you typically see in Newmarket recently but that flukes and failure of equipment are out of their control, referring specifically to this faulty riser cable and to an incident in the summer when a squirrel was blamed for another large outage.
However, both Taylor and Semsedini said that Newmarket-Tay Power's network has better reliability numbers than any of the GTA utilities, including Alectra, Toronto Hydro and Hydro One.
"I know this doesn’t bring any comfort to our customers when the power is off, but I think it’s important for context," Semsedini said.
Both the power company and the mayor also confirmed an increase in capital spending to $7.5 million annually that will see infrastructure in Newmarket improved.
"We're going to continue to invest in our infrastructure and keep our systems as strong as we possibly can. There will be outages in the future and we hope to be able to respond as quickly as we did last night," Taylor said.
