New Records of Interest Only to CANWEA

At 7 pm on Friday February 18th, 2011, Ontario wind generators hit a new record high, with the IESO reporting 1350MW of wind output.

For the entire day, wind production was 30,492MW (also a new record).

This is enough electricity to power a gazillion homes like mine - because my home just has a ghost power supply at the moment. 


Credit to D-Link and Rogers for making equipment that works on the tiny supply even small radios, and coffee makers, are not working on.

Hydro One's smart network is proving immeasurably valuable.    Their website crashes at sign-in, but leaves you on a screen showing this:

An unexpected error has occurred that has caused the application to terminate. Press OK to return to the home page. For more information/support, please call 1-888-664-9376.

May I suggest that be started "Yet another unexpected error ..."  Pressing OK doesn't return me to the home page - it refreshes the error message.  Maybe the could put a page view counter on the error page - that could be motivational.

The phone number tells you to hang on if you have a problem, but first, "we're closed for the holidays" - in English and en Francais  About 90 seconds in it gives you a choice.

Then they told me they were closed, but ... if I was calling about a bill due on a weekend, they do give you until the next business day. 

If the call is about an emergency, hang up and call somebody who cares ("911").
Then I get to choice options, and #1 is outage.  In my opinion, that could be moved almost up to the front.  I'd begin with:
For english, say english ... pour francais, dit francais
Do you have an outage


Here's the thing.  I have a generator.  I haven't used it since getting the wood stove - I appreciate blackouts.  This phantom power allowing some clocks to work on radios that don't - the network stuff to function, lights to work dimly, but not coffee makers - this is new to me.
I just wanted to know if this was a lesser problem, than a full blackout - due to the smart system  (maybe they get some juice through and before they'd get none), if anybody knows about it for my location, or if I've got something problematic with my panel.

When I finally connected with a pleasant chap, he assured me this type of thing he thinks he's heard of happening before - because of the weather and all.

I charmed him to get myself on a list, and confirmed my phone number.
When my name comes up, they might have 911 call me.
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As I post this, the small radios work, and my MBP computer, which was on battery power, now shows as receiving power.