A copy of Hydro Ottawa's explanation for the power outages on October 4th and 5th can be found here. It still leaves a number of questions unanswered and I will be making sure concerns of Kanata South residents are heard at the Hydro Ottawa Annual General Meeting (AGM). The Hydro Ottawa AGM will be part of the council meeting on October 24. There is not an opportunity for public presentations at council meetings, but if you have comments I will make sure they get to Hydro Ottawa staff and city councillors on the board of Hydro Ottawa.

Kanata South Councillor Peggy Feltmate called on Hydro Ottawa to review how it communicates with residents when there is a power failure after 8,000 homes were without power last night.

“Residents couldn’t get through to Hydro Ottawa, heard nothing on the radio, and, this morning, saw nothing in the newspaper. When several thousand people have been been without power for up to five and half hours, that is unacceptable,” Feltmate said.

At 8:30 p.m. last night a cable fault left 8,000 homes without power. It was after 2:00 a.m. before power was restored to all homes and 6,500 homes lost power again briefly at 3:30 a.m..

“Hydro Ottawa has left Kanata South residents in the dark literally and figuratively,” Feltmate said. “When power outages of this size occur, media outlets need to be alerted so people are able to find out what is happening.”

In previous years Kanata has experienced a significantly higher number of power outages than similar parts of the City.

“What makes the latest outage especially frustrating is that it comes after Kanata residents were told work by Hydro Ottawa had improved the reliability of hydro service in Kanata,” Feltmate said.