​Westario Power says emergency power outage notification was on its website

Notification about the emergency power outage, that affected the Town of Kincardine, Saturday, April 13, was on the Westario Power corporate website.

That’s the word from Bill Lorentz, manger of customer service for Westario Power, in response to questions about why Kincardine customers were not notified about the loss of power, which was required for Hydro One to fix three hydro poles that were damaged in the wind storm, Friday night, April 12.

The Town of Kincardine’s distribution lines are owned and operated by Westario Power, which gets the main transmission feed from Hydro One. The emergency power outage ran from 11 a.m. to about 5:30 p.m., April 13.

Lorentz says the Westario Power office is not maintained 24 hours per day, seven days per week; it has an after-hours answering service. So, the emergency, unplanned outage was posted on the front page of the corporate website.

He says for a planned outage, such as the one for the Town of Kincardine, Sunday, April 28, the company would conduct a “call blast,” notifying all customers automatically.

The emergency power outage notification on the website was directed at Westario Power customers in Southampton, Mildmay and Kincardine, says Lorentz, noting the Kincardine notice stated the power would go out at 11 a.m. and be down for about five hours.

“In Kincardine, Westario Power’s focus is on the town's system,” says Lorentz. “We are in the distribution business, not hydro transmission, so we are at the mercy of the transmission system. When we lose that feed, there is no known time of restoration.”

As for the question of why some customers in the Town of Kincardine had their power restored later than 5:30 p.m., Lorentz says Westario Power has to ensure that the distribution system is restored properly so it can maintain power safely and reliably.

The planned outage for the Town of Kincardine is set for Sunday, April 28. Approximately 140 Westario Power customers will be impacted, beginning at 7 a.m. for about six hours. The power may be restored prior to the stated time if work is completed ahead of project timelines.

The outage is necessary to complete upgrades to the distribution system in Kincardine. Customers will receive a notification at the contact number on file.