Power to the people – please
August 14, 2003: My family was just leaving Ontario Place when the park lights went out. We quickly learned we weren’t alone. More than 50 million people lost power in Ontario and the northeastern U.S. in what remains the largest power outage in North American history.
The cause – a heat wave spiked demand at an electrical utility in Ohio causing power lines to sag into trees. The lights were back on in about 30 hours.
2018: Some might remember a mid-April ice storm and early-May wind storm that knocked out the lights for a couple of days.
2022: We also remember the derecho storm that killed power for one million people here.
March – April 2025: My family was in the dark for six days because of the largest ice storm Ontario had seen since 1998. We were lucky. Friends of ours were out for 12 days.
Then a wind and rain storm hit at the end of April. This time we were powerless for only one day. Ontario was at the north end of a derecho storm sweeping across the U.S. from Ohio to New England caused by high daytime temperatures clashing with a cold front.
The increasing severity of storms has been predicted for some time now because of global heating. To minimize those scary global temperatures the International Energy Agency says we need to triple renewable power, manage an orderly decline of coal, oil and gas use and quickly double the rate of energy efficiency.
Our new government has been talking about a cross-Canada energy corridor that includes sharing electricity across provincial borders. That would increase energy efficiency and self-reliance. And, as a Stanford University study showed last year, cross-border electricity sharing could cut outage risks by 40 percent.
Unfortunately, it can’t prevent storms from felling trees and power lines. But it can smooth out peaks in electricity demand on those scorching days when many households crank up the air conditioning. Summer is Ontario’s most challenging season for meeting spikes in demand, so cross border sharing can prevent summer brown-outs or blackouts. In fact, we already get some power from Quebec in the summer, while they draw on Ontario power when their demand peaks during the winter.
At home we can cash in on many tips out there for saving us money while reducing the load on the grid and curbing pollution.
- Install LED light bulbs if you haven’t already. And turn off the lights when you leave the room.
- Unplug electronics like the TV or computer when not in use. Make it easier by plugging multiple devices into a power bar that turns off with one switch.
- Minimize using AI like ChatGPT. Google searches consume 10 times less power.
- Wash clothes in cold or warm, not hot, water. Then dry them on the line or using drier balls.
- Draw the drapes to reduce the sun’s heat in summer and add a bit of insulation against the cold on winter nights.
- When replacing appliances, look for the Energy Star label. They can use 25-35 percent less power than 15-year-old appliances. And if the air conditioner goes – replace it with an energy efficient heat pump.
Hydro One offers many more ways to save energy.
Now, if they could only bury those power lines so the lights don’t go out during a storm.
