Former local power distribution manager tasked with restoring electricity after Ottawa tornado
By Collin Gallant on September 28, 2018.
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com @CollinGallant The man in charge of reconnecting power to wide swaths of Ottawa after a tornado last week learned his trade in Medicine Hat. Now his former colleagues are hoping to learn something from that event, as well as local storms that knocked out power here in the last several years. Joseph Muglia was the city’s general manager of power distribution for five years until June 2017 before leaving to take the similar position of director of Ottawa Hydro. That agency has been working to clear wreckage and restore downed lines that left 174,000 homes without power for up to five days. City of Medicine Hat utility system manager Grayson Mauch says the task left from tornados in the nation’s capital on Sept. 21 is monumental in comparison to recent local storms. “The scale is 10 to 15 times larger compared to what we’ve had here,” said Mauch, referring to an Oct. 17, 2017 windstorm that brought gusts upwards of 100 kilometres per hour and downed power lines at 500 points around the city. At its worst, about 11,000 addresses in Medicine Hat were left without power, though 80 per cent saw restoration by the next morning and all but 25 by the end of the next day. A total of 38 poles were snapped either by wind, or downed trees pulling on lines. “(In Ottawa) it’s not just trees being toppled but roofs coming off too. “We can certainly empathize, but you can only imagine what people were going through.” In comparison, six tornados in the vicinity of Ottawa caused widespread damage to homes, power infrastructure, and knocked out a substation that connected power from the Ontario grid to the parts of the city. The city has in the past provided aid to other municipalities for disaster cleanup, but considering the distance nothing is being offered to the Ontario city. Mauch hasn’t been in touch with Muglia, saying that to call would be to “pester” him when crews are working around the clock. “There’s very little we could do,” he said. Though full power was restored on Thursday, rebuilding that substation will take some time, said Mauch, adding that the need to reroute power is likely part of the reason for the length of time needed to fully energize the grid. That sort of problem is something Medicine Hat is less likely to face. “(Ottawa) doesn’t have a power plant like we do,” said Mauch. “They pull all their power off the grid … we have a level of redundancy here that most don’t.” This year the local utility active a new tie-in to the provincial grid that has enough capacity to import the entire city’s internal power demand. Previously the province inter-tie was located near the main river valley power plant, but was moved to the north end as a redundancy against disaster striking either area. Essentially, if the north-end grid connection was damaged, the system is still fed by the main power plant, and in case of a disaster there, vice versa, said Mauch. A five-year process to increase capacity in a loop of lines around the city is also nearing completion, and Mauch also said more isolation points have been installed, allowing crews to cordon off trouble spots more quickly. This summer also saw a greater focus on tree trimming and pole replacement, said Mauch. 22
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