Hydro One crews have restored power to thousands of customers across Ontario following two separate widespread outages caused by animal contact and human error.
The first outage struck the Kingston area around 2:30 a. m.
>>> Emergency Crews Extinguish Large Industrial Fire Near Northwich
on Saturday, May 16, 2026, leaving nearly 25,000 customers without electricity.
Utility officials traced the incident to wildlife interfering with high-voltage equipment at a local substation.
“An incident of animal contact at our transmission station in Kingston resulted in an outage affecting close to 25,000 Hydro One customers as well as customers of local electricity providers,” said Bianca Pizzo, spokesperson for Hydro One.
Crews began rerouting power in stages, restoring service to Hydro One customers by 8 a. m.
Minor service interruptions continued throughout the day as workers normalized the grid configuration.
“It’s going to be smaller pockets across Kingston affected on and off throughout the day and should be fully resolved by mid-afternoon,” Pizzo said.
The blackout disabled numerous traffic signals in Kingston, prompting a safety advisory from local law enforcement.
Officials reminded drivers to treat dark intersections as four-way stops and urged residents to keep emergency lines clear.
Separate Outage in Sault Ste. Marie
A massive power outage hit Sault Ste. Marie on May 1, 2026, leaving 34,065 PUC customers without electricity for over an hour.
>>> Royal International Air Tattoo 2026 Cancelled Due to Military Operations
Hydro One confirmed the disruption stemmed from an operational misstep during maintenance work at the Third Line Transmission Station.
“The May 1 outage affecting PUC customers was caused by a switching error made by a crew working at the Third Line Transmission Station,” said Tiziana Baccega Rosa, spokesperson for Hydro One.
The utility apologized for the disruption, which lasted from 11 a. m.
to approximately 12:18 p. m.
Personnel accidentally deactivated the wrong control mechanism.
“There’s a number of switches in the station and they accidentally pulled the wrong one,” Baccega Rosa said.
Sault Ste.
Marie experienced another power disruption on Friday, May 15, 2026, when just under 11,000 PUC customers lost electricity shortly before 11:40 a.
>>> Storms Threaten Carolinas with Heavy Rain Over Memorial Day Weekend
m. Local crews restored full service by Friday afternoon, and investigations into the cause are ongoing.
