Things are back to normal at the Hydro One sub-station at Division Street and John Counter Boulevard after a person broke in Wednesday afternoon.
It prompted Hydro One to remotely turn the power off without warning the public.
Hydro One doesn’t know how this person got in, but a case like this is highly unusual.
“We talk about the multiple barriers in place to protect infrastructure and the public,” says Tiz Baccega Rosa, spokesperson for Hydro One.
“Those are there for a reason, and largely respected by all. However, when there is a unique situation like this, we do have to take the measures to resolve the situation in a safe way.”
This outage affected 8,800 Hydro One customers that extended all the way to Lansdowne, and nearly 14,000 Utilities Kingston customers also experienced loss of power.
Police say the person who broke in was a vulnerable individual and they were not charged.
Police add that the person did not tamper with any equipment.
When Hydro One found out someone was in the station, the power was deliberately shut off with no notice to customers.
“These decisions are made in real time,” Baccega Rosa says.
“Our grid control centre is operating remotely, so this doesn’t require crews to be on site to take the actions we took yesterday.”
While the outage had thousands of people in the region without electricity, ultimately, it came to a peaceful resolution.
No one was injured, and the person was safely removed without incident.
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