Frequent power outages in central Lambton County are again putting the spotlight on the Hydro One Wanstead Substation.
There have been 19 disruptions reported in the last 90 days affecting customers in Alvinston, Warwick Township, Petrolia and especially Oil Springs.
Bluewater Power CEO Janice McMichael-Dennis says that is unacceptable, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.
She says work has been ongoing for a couple of years now to renew and revamp the Wanstead station.
"That won't be in service though, until December, so at this point, we have to get to December, and then it will be truly a world class station," says McMichael-Dennis. "Bluewater Power even made a financial contribution to this project to even take it up a level, but in the interim, the performance out at the Wanstead transmission station has caused our customers a lot of concern, which causes us concern because these are our customers and we have an obligation to look after them."
McMichael-Dennis says over the Civic Holiday weekend alone, customers in the Oil Springs area experienced three outages, two being lightning related.
She says they've reached out to Hydro One, asking for better options to be put in place to avoid outages to Bluewater Power customers, while the upgrade work is being completed.
The total cost of the Wanstead project is estimated at $35-million.