Fortis officials expect to be able to lessen the duration of some future power outages in the Olds area by this fall.
“We are in the process of installing automated devices in the Olds area that in some cases will allow us to restore power in seconds or minutes to most customers on an outage such as ( Aug. 7),” said Alana Antonelli, Fortis’s communications manager.
Seven devices are being installed in the Olds area that can help to more quickly redirect power to the affected area from another power source.
“Operators in our control centre in Airdrie will have the ability to work with our field personnel to reroute power automatically when it is safe to do so, whereas right now it is a manual process,” she said.
The devices are expected to be operational by this fall.
“This will help us improve the reliability for our customers and lessen the duration of any outages that do occur,” she said.
During the last major outage in Olds on Aug. 7, approximately 2,900 of Fortis’s customers were affected. The outage started around 6:30 p.m. and was restored by approximately 7:30 p.m.
Power outages have a number of consequences aside from general inconvenience.
“With regards to the calls for service during power outages, we definitely see an increase in complaints received,” said Olds RCMP Cpl. Courtney Harding.
She said that usually the complaints are in relation to multiple business and residential alarms being triggered, as well as traffic related complaints or collisions if the traffic light standards are down throughout town.
“Lessening the power outages in Olds would certainly reduce calls for service we receive during a power outage,” said Harding.
Because of the nature of calls for service that the Olds Fire Department gets, fire Chief Justin Andrew said he expects no noticeable change in call-outs.
“The technology that Fortis will install will typically not have an effect on our service requests or emergency calls, as when the fire department is called out for power-related incidents it is usually as a result from physical damage to infrastructure,” Andrew said.
When bird strikes, lightning, wind, falling trees, motor vehicle collsions or equipment contact with overhead lines damage electricity infrastructure, the department is called out because of the potential for public safety and resulting fire or electrocution, Andrew explained.
Fire department members act as a quick means of establishing a safe perimeter until Fortis personnel arrive on scene, and eliminate the hazard by repair or isolation of equipment, he said.
“As much of an inconvenience as it is to citizens when the power goes out, the system is designed to do that for safety reasons, and minimizes the potential for catastrophic failure and/or damage to life and property,” Andrew said.
The fire chief added that Fortis has always been extremely quick to react to outages.
“But as the power demands increase as our community grows, there will continue to be occurrences that affect the citizens and ultimately the fire department.”
