Just like you would perform regular checks on your vehicle, your furnace or your health, Hydro Ottawa regularly inspects all of our equipment across the city, including our 50,000 hydro poles. On average, a wooden hydro pole has a lifespan of about 40 years, but sometimes damage from water, woodpeckers and other elements can cause issues with poles, which could potentially lead to outages.

Our pole inspection program decreases the chance of pole-related outages through annual inspections. We divide the city into ten sections, and each year we inspect and complete one section. This means that poles are tested – at a minimum – every ten years; much sooner than their 40-year lifespan.

These inspections help us determine the order in which poles need to be replaced and help us inform future work plans. We take extra steps to check our infrastructure regularly, to minimize power outages from equipment failure and ensure the reliability of our electrical system across the city.