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Strong winds cut power in parts of northwestern Ontario

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Strong winds are to blame for a number of power outages across much of northwestern Ontario.

Hydro One reports crews were dealing with more than 46 separate outages, impacting over 3,300 of its customers between Kakabeka Falls and the Manitoba border.

Fort Frances Power Corporation is also dealing with several outages in its community.

While many had power restored Friday night, Hydro One indicates 2,700 of its customers may not have electricity until Saturday morning.

Environment Canada says a system moving through the area is bringing wind gusts of up to 80 kilometres an hour in some places.

The same system passed over the Prairies, causing widespread damage and uprooting trees.

Environment Canada says the wind should ease later tonight.

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Ottawa Demands Immediate Action After Rogers Outage

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Canada’s industry minister is demanding immediate action from the country’s telecom companies after last week’s Rogers outage.

François-Philippe Champagne met with the heads of Rogers, Bell and Telus on Monday to discuss ways to improve the resiliency of the network across Canada.

“I told them in essence that this was unacceptable. Full stop,” Champagne said of the nationwide outage that affected millions of Canadians.

Champagne said the companies must enter into a formal arrangement within 60 days to cover three areas of concern.

They include mutual assistance during outages, emergency roaming, and a communication protocol to better inform the public and authorities during telecommunications emergencies.

Champagne said the agreement is similar to what the FCC in the United States has enacted to improve network resiliency during disasters.

“All these measures taken together will add resilience to our network and make sure we are better prepared if anything similar were to happen again,” he said.

Champagne said these initial steps will be in addition to any recommendations that come from the CRTC inquiry that will investigate the root cause of the outage.

Over the weekend, Rogers said it believes the outage was caused by a network system failure in one of its core networks following a maintenance update which caused some of its routers to malfunction.

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Network System Failure Likely Cause Of Rogers Outage

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A network system failure following a maintenance update is believed to have caused Friday’s widespread Rogers outage.

Tony Staffieri, president and CEO of Rogers, outlined the details in a letter sent to customers over the weekend.

Staffieri said the network system failure in its core network caused some of its routers to malfunction early Friday morning.

“We disconnected the specific equipment and redirected traffic, which allowed our network and services to come back online over time as we managed traffic volumes returning to normal levels,” Staffieri said in the letter.

Services were restored to a “vast majority” of customers by Friday evening, and Rogers said its networks and systems are “close to fully operational.”

The day-long outage affected internet, TV, home phone and wireless services across the country starting early Friday morning.

Interac services were also impacted by the outage, leaving Canadians unable to send or receive e-transfers, or use their debit cards.

“We’re particularly troubled that some customers could not reach emergency services and we are addressing the issue as an urgent priority,” said Staffieri.

While 911 services themselves were not directly impacted by the outage, some Rogers customers were unable to connect when dialing 911.

Staffieri said their team of leading technical experts and global vendors continue to investigate the root cause of the outage and “identify steps to increase redundancy in our networks and systems.”

“We will take every step necessary, and continue to make significant investments in our networks to strengthen our technology systems, increase network stability for our customers, and enhance our testing,” he said.

Rogers said it will proactively credit all affected customers, adding that more information will be shared soon.

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‘Software Update’ Led To Rogers Outages

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Rogers says a recent software update led to intermittent wireless service outages across the country on Monday.

The problem affected Tbaytel customers in northwestern Ontario for much of the day.

Chief technology officer Jorge Fernandes says their network operations centre first noticed issues early Monday morning.

Fernandes said they later determined that a recent Ericsson software update “affected a piece of equipment in the central part of our wireless network.”

“That led to intermittent congestion and service impacts for many customers across the country,” Fernandes wrote in a statement.

The intermittent outages also affected Rogers for Business, Fido and chatr.

Rogers tweeted early Tuesday morning that services had been restored to the “vast majority” of customers.

“I want to sincerely apologize for the significant impact and frustration that this has caused,” said Fernandes.

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Power Back On Across Sioux Lookout

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Power is back across Sioux Lookout according to Sioux Lookout Hydro.

They say the outage was caused due to the failure of Hydro One’s equipment inside the substation.

They also say that Hydro One has repaired the issue and they apologize for the inconvenience of the outage.

https://www.facebook.com/siouxlookouthydro/posts/2488396918115008

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Schools Closed In Sioux Lookout

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A major power outage is impacting the entire town of Sioux Lookout and Alcona this morning. (Wednesday, October 16th)

The outage was reported around 4:30 this morning.

Sioux Hydro is investigating the cause and also say the power should return to all customers soon.

https://www.facebook.com/siouxlookouthydro/posts/2488343571453676

All schools are now closed in Sioux Lookout.

Buses will be picking students up at 9:45am.

 

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Upcoming Planned Hydro Outage In Dryden Rural Areas

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An upcoming outage by Hydro One will be impacting quite a few residents in some of Dryden’s rural areas.

Hydro One says on Friday October 18th the power will be out from 8am to 11am for 1114 homes and businesses.

They say the townships affected include Wabigoon, Mutrie, Temple, Langton, Smellie, Aubrey, Redvers, Docker and Sanford.

Hydro One says the power interruption is needed to install new hydro equipment.

They also say people who will be affected by this outage have been contacted.

Correction edit: The original article indicated the outage was in areas east of Dryden, when the outage actually effects rural areas all around Dryden.

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Planned Power Outage In Dryden

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Some Dryden residents will be without power today. (Thursday, September 26th)

Hydro One has scheduled an outage from 11:30am until 2:30pm.

Crews are replacing hydro poles.

Some 112 customers are impacted.

The power outage is centred around the 1st Street and 2nd Street area in north Dryden.

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