Hydro Ottawa Limited Major Event: November 1, 2019
Prior to Major Event
1. Did the distributor have any prior warning that the Major Event would occur?
Winds were forecasted however the severity of the winds exceeded what was expected.
2. If the distributor did have prior warning, did the distributor arrange to have extra employees on duty or on standby prior to the Major Event beginning? If so, please give a brief description of arrangements.
Hydro Ottawa had a full complement of on-shift personnel, and a full on-call roster of field technicians and management personnel.
3. If the distributor did have prior warning, did the distributor issue any media announcements to the public warning of possible outages resulting from the pending Major Event? If so, through what channels?
Due to the unexpected impact of the wind event there was no prior notification to our customers of a pending wind event.
4. Did the distributor train its staff on the response plans for a Major Event? If so, please give a brief description of the training process.
Hydro Ottawa has an established Electrical Emergency Response Plan and Organization. Formal training is completed annually according to Market Rules, and a weekly preparation meeting is held to refresh on-call management personnel.
5. Did the distributor have third party mutual assistance agreements in place prior to the Major Event? If so, who were the third parties (i.e., other distributors, private contractors)?
Hydro Ottawa is a member of the Hydro One Mutual Assistance Agreement with Ontario Local Distribution Companies (LDC's) and a member of the North Atlantic Mutual Aid Group (US based). Hydro Ottawa also has standing service level agreements with forestry contractors, civil contractors and lines contractors for planned and unplanned work. No assistance was required.
During the Major Event
1. Please explain why this event was considered by the distributor to be a Major Event.
This event was considered to be a Major Event Day based on the IEEE Standard 1366 method. The daily SAIDI value of 5.97 on November 1st , 2019 exceeded the daily SAIDI threshold of 5.3, as determined by IEEE Standard 1366, based on the daily SAIDI values for the past five years. The total number of customer hours interrupted was 33,805.
2. Was the IEEE Standard 1366 used to identify the scope of the Major Event? If not, why not?
Yes, the IEEE Standard 1366 was used to identify the scope of the Major Event.
3. Please identify the Cause of Interruption for the Major Event as per the table in section 2.1.4.2.5.
The primary cause of interruption for the Major Event was Tree Contacts due to falling trees during the wind storm.
4. Were there any declarations by government authorities, regulators or the grid operator of an emergency state of operation in relation to the Major Event?
There were no emergency declarations issued by government authorities, regulators or the grid operator of an emergency state of operation in relation to the Major Event. Hydro Ottawa did activate our Electrical Emergency Response Plan with all on-call Management Personnel and a Crisis Communication Team representative on duty in our Incident Command Centre from 12:00pm until 16:30pm. Our emergency stance continued with our work centres open until Saturday Nov 2 at 16:00.
5. When did the Major Event begin (date and time)?
The first major outage affecting TB15 circuit began at 12:10 am on Nov 1st 2019.
6. What percentage of on-call distributor staff was available at the start of the Major Event and utilized during the Major Event?
All on-call staff was available at the start of the Major Event, and 100% of on-call staff, were utilized during the Major Event.
7. Did the distributor issue any estimated times of restoration (ETR) to the public during the Major Event? If so, through what channels?
ETR's were provided on the HOL website Outage Map, Power Outage Line and by email Outage Alerts. ETRs were published on social media.
8. If the distributor did issue ETRs, at what date and time did the distributor issue its first ETR to the public?
ETR's for the initial outages were issued by our Outage Management System, Power Outage Line and by email Outage Alerts beginning at 12:10 am Nov 1. Regular updates were provided throughout the day into the following day.
9. Did the distributor issue any updated ETRs to the public? If so, how many and at what dates and times were they issued?
ETRs were revised as new information became available throughout the day.
10. Did the distributor inform customers about the options for contacting the distributor to receive more details about outage/restoration efforts? If so, please describe how this was achieved.
Hydro Ottawa's social media posts advised to contact our Power Outage Line or Outage Map for additional information.
11. Did the distributor issue press releases, hold press conferences or send information to customers through social media notifications? If so, how many times did the distributor issue press releases, hold press conferences or send information to customers through social media notifications? What was the general content of this information?
No press release or press conference, but Hydro Ottawa was active on social media (particularly Twitter) throughout the event, posting images and videos, as well as regular ETR updates.
12. What percentage of customer calls were dealt with by the distributor’s IVR system (if available) versus a live representative?
43.3% of callers opted for the IVR and 56.8% of customers opted for a live agent.
13. Did the distributor provide information about the Major Event on its website? If so, how many times during the Major Event was the website updated?
No additional information about the major event, but Hydro Ottawa's outage map is updated every fifteen minutes.
14. Was there any point in time when the website was inaccessible? If so, what percentage of the total outage time was the website inaccessible?
No, the website was accessible throughout the event with no interruption in service.
15. How many customers were interrupted during the Major Event? What percentage of the distributor’s total customer base did the interrupted customers represent?
14,228 customers were interrupted during the Major Event, representing 4% of Hydro Ottawa's total customer base.
16. How many hours did it take to restore 90% of the customers who were interrupted?
The major damage from the wind started at 9am and 90% were restored at 3pm.
17. Was any distributed generation used to supply load during the Major Event?
Not directly, but all available distributed generation (DG) did remain paralleled to the Hydro Ottawa distribution system.
18. Were there any outages associated with Loss of Supply during the Major Event? If so, please report on the duration and frequency of Loss of Supply outages.
No, there were no Loss of Supply outages during the Major Event.
19. In responding to the Major Event, did the distributor utilize assistance through a third party mutual assistance agreement?
One outside contractor was secured to assist with power restoration activities.
20. Did the distributor run out of any needed equipment or materials during the Major Event? If so, please describe the shortages.
No shortages were encountered.
After the Major Event
1. What steps, if any, are being taken to be prepared for or mitigate such Major Events in the future (i.e., staff training, process improvements, system upgrades)?
No debrief of the event was held with stakeholders. There will be continued focus on on-call and emergency response preparation.
2. What lessons did the distributor learn in responding to the Major Event that will be useful in responding to the next Major Event?
Identified need for early activation of the Emergency Response Organization and timely communication both internal and with external stakeholders.
3. Did the distributor survey its customers after the Major Event to determine the customers' opinions of how effective the distributor was in responding to the Major Event? If so, please describe the results.
No. Engagement in posts throughout the event and when power was restored were primarily positive.