Thousands of people were left without power Tuesday night after a combination of wind, snow and ice. Those are three big factors that can bring down power lines but our power supply also has to deal with salt build-up.
PowerStream says many of the hydro line fires and outages they are seeing this year have been caused by the salt used on our roads.
“It’s from the salt spray that goes on the roads for protecting the roads from winter driving. When that salt is driven on and there’s moisture it vaporizes and it can get up into the air and lands on the insulators,” says PowerStream’s Sr. V.P. Mike Matthews.
Those insulators then often catch fire knocking the power out. PowerStream says it happens every winter but January thaws often help to melt the ice and wash the salt away.
The company says it uses a high pressure washer to clear the salt build-up but it has not been able to use it the past two winters because of the extreme cold.
“This year and last year as you recall we had a long winter as well where we really didn’t have the temperature going about -4 C. Above -4 C we can insulator wash but if it stays below -4 C we can’t,” added Matthews.
Matthews says it can take the better part of a week to do 10,000 poles and that’s just hydro poles that line main routes.
“When you see a flicker that means the insulator tracked but didn’t catch fire to the pole. When you have a permanent outage that means the pole caught fire,” says Matthews.
PowerStream says it hopes to have crews out over the next few days washing and clearing lines of the salt build-up. But the company admits it’s going to have to find new and effective ways to prevent it from happening in the future.
