The fierce windstorm that swept through the region on June 7 did more than tear a few shingles off people’s roofs; it sent a 5,900-kilogram hydro tower tumbling to the ground at about mileage 47 up the Fraserdale Road.
The huge 500-kilovolt tower moves electricity, up to 800 megawatts, out of Abitibi Canyon, mainly from Ontario Power Generation’s Otter Rapids installation. With wind gusting up to over 50 km/h that day, the tower crumpled, said Hydro One spokesperson Daniele Gauvin.
“That is very rare,” she said.
With that tower down, it effectively cut off the Otter Rapids generating station from the electricity grid for about a week, said Greg Towns, Hydro One’s distribution superintendent for the northeast. It is fortunate that the blowdown occurred when it did, he added, because had it occurred in the heat of the summer, demand would have far exceeded generating capacity, and Ontario would have been forced to purchase power from out of province.
“Power couldn’t get out of the bottleneck, so the total generating capacity was reduced,” Mr. Towns said. “The week had been cool so the demand was less and there was enough capacity to meet [it].”
Battling wet weather and clouds of blackflies, it took workers a week to prepare the pad to install a new tower. Once that was done, on June 14 a 234 Chinook helicopter with a lift capacity of 12,700 kilograms (28,000 pounds) carried the new tower from the assembly area to the site.
Mr. Towns said it took less time to get the tower to the site than it did to get it into place. By 8 p.m. on June 11, the power was flowing again.
Pieces of the downed tower are being examined to determine why it failed, and, depending on the findings, that could see Hydro One undertake a general inspection of all the towers in the vicinity of he crash.
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