FAQ

Follow these steps below when noticing a power outage:

• Check to ensure that the power isn’t out because of a tripped breaker or blown fuse in your home’s electrical panel
• Check with your neighbours to see if their power is out
• Check out outage map and twitter feed for the most current information on outages to see if we are already aware.
• Submit the outage online using the outage report form and an email will be sent directly to our outage department.

If all of the methods above were unsuccessful:

• Call us at 705.474.8100 ext. 2 (please be prepared for long wait times during an outage)

The cause of the outage may be due to a tripped breaker or blown fuse in your home’s electrical panel. If your breakers and fuses appear to be okay, you should contact a licensed electrician to evaluate the problem.

Your calls are received by our Call Centre Dispatchers, recorded on a trouble ticket and forwarded to our Control Centre. Trouble tickets are sorted and assigned priority through our established Prioritization Guidelines. System Response crews are then dispatched to start the restoration process.

Power outages can last from a few minutes to several hours, or even longer, depending on the cause of the outage and how many customers are affected. In the case of widespread damage, we give priority to hospitals, police and fire departments and situations that pose a safety hazard to the public (i.e., downed wires). Then we work to restore power to the greatest number of customers in the shortest time possible. Rest assured that we work as quickly as possible to restore power to everyone affected and we appreciate your patience. Our target response time is 30 minutes.

Your individual service may be damaged or your home could be on a different main power line than your neighbour. Also, check to ensure that your power isn’t out due to a tripped breaker or blown fuse in your home’s electrical panel.

Power surges or peaks in electricity can damage your home electronics and appliances. Plug your electronics into a surge protector, available at hardware stores, to help protect against the damage caused by power surges.

A portable generator can be used to power your home during an outage. Used indoors, generators can pose a serious health and safety hazard. Always follow the manufacturer’s instructions carefully when using this equipment.

If your life, or the life of a loved one, depends on electrically-powered medical equipment, such as a ventilator or kidney dialysis machine, please let us know so that you can be placed on our registry as needing alternate sources of power in cases of planned power outages. While we cannot guarantee an uninterrupted supply of electricity, if your name is on our registry, we will do our best to notify you of power outages scheduled by North Bay Hydro-Electric System.

For further information on our Life Support Notification program or how to add your name to our registry, please call 705-474-8100.

In case of emergency call 911.

Power outages occur for many reasons and can last from a few seconds to hours or longer. These are the most common causes of power outages in our community.

• Extreme weather

• Equipment failure (might be a good time to explain how Hydro One supplies are sometimes the issue)

• Vehicle accidents

• Animals

• Cable Dig-ins

• Trees

• Planned Interruptions

• Safety e.g. a tree is about to fall on a line