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Outdoor Safety

Call Before You Dig Powerline Safety Customer-Owned Equipment Transformers Tree Trimming and Planting Colouring Sheets and Safety Videos Farm Safety

Home Outages & Safety Safety Tips Outdoor Safety

Powerline worker repairing a service with safety covers over the powerline.

Working Outdoors? Think Safety First.

With spring in full swing, many homeowners are heading outside to tackle yard work, landscaping and home improvement projects. While these seasonal tasks are a great way to refresh your outdoor space, it’s important to keep electrical safety top of mind. From overhead powerlines to underground utilities and the safe use of outdoor equipment, taking a few simple precautions can help prevent serious hazards and keep your projects running smoothly.

Read the Homeowner Electrical Safety Handbook

Call Before You Dig!

Planning a project? Don’t dig until you know what’s below.
Reach out to Ontario One Call to request a FREE underground locate before you begin. Locates are mandatory, it’s the law.

They act as the link between you and utility owners, ensuring underground services like electrical, gas, water, and telecom lines are clearly marked to keep your project safe.

To avoid delays, please submit your locate request well in advance of your planned digging date and wait until all utilities have responded and marked their infrastructure before you begin.

Visit Ontario One Call Website
Gardener in red wellington boots digging over soil in an organic vegetable garden with a stainless steel garden spade. Beetroot, carrot, lettuce and beans grow behind.

Be Aware of Overhead Powerlines

When undertaking outdoor activities — standing on a ladder, trimming trees, or cleaning eaves, remember to keep your body and equipment at least 3 metres away from overhead powerlines.

Follow these tips to stay safe around powerlines:

  • Always obey the safety signs.
  • Never fly kites where powerlines are visible.
  • Look up when you’re working near powerlines.
  • Have a signaller, someone who can watch to make sure you keep a safe distance
  • Never touch a powerline and remember, electricity can jump or ‘arc’ from a powerline to a metal object.
  • Cover those lines. You can submit a request to have visibility rubber covers temporarily installed on low voltage lines under 750 volts. Contact our Customer Experience Team to request covers: 1-877-871-2215

Be Aware of Downed Powerlines

Downed power lines are extremely dangerous and should always be treated as live. If you see a downed line:

  • Stay back at least 10 metres (33 feet) — about the length of a school bus
  • Do not touch anything nearby, including objects or the ground around the line
  • Call 9-1-1 immediately and then report it to our team

If a power line falls on your vehicle:

  • Stay inside your vehicle — it is the safest place to be
  • Call 9-1-1 and wait for emergency crews
  • Only exit if there is an immediate danger (like fire), and if you must, jump clear without touching the vehicle and ground at the same time

Your safety is our top priority. Stay alert and keep your distance.

Temporary Disconnection Requests

Contact us to temporarily disconnect the power to your property when working near powerlines around your property, installing an EV charging station, upgrading your electrical service and maintaining customer-owned electrical equipment. This service is provided free of charge and is available during regular business hours.

Request a Service Disconnect
Powerline worker repairing a service on the powerline.

Customer-Owned Equipment

A graphic instructing owners to always hire licensed electrical contractors for repairs.

GrandBridge Energy owns and maintains the electrical equipment up to a point known as the demarcation point. The property owner is responsible for maintaining and repairing equipment beyond the demarcation point, including the mast and meter base attached to the property and trimming vegetation around private customer-owned powerlines.

The image to the left indicates the demarcation point of our utility-maintained and customer-owned equipment.

To learn more about demarcation points, please view our Conditions of Service. If you’re unsure how to determine ownership of the powerlines and related equipment, please Contact Us for more information.

Conditions of Service

Maintenance of Customer-Owned Equipment

In addition to the mast and meter base, if a customer has a private overhead powerline on their property that they own, the customer is legally responsible for maintaining the electrical equipment on the property – such as poles and overhead wires – in a safe manner and in compliance with the Ontario Electrical Safety Code. This includes safely maintaining tree growth and vegetation around overhead powerlines to avoid potential electrical hazards and unplanned outages.

Explore commonly asked questions and answers about trimming vegetation around customer-owned pole lines.

Download the Pole Tagging Flyer (PDF)

Transformers

A transformer is a device that changes high-voltage electricity to lower-voltage electricity that is supplied to homes or residential buildings.

A transformer can be mounted on a utility pole or ground level in green boxes – also known as pad-mount transformers.

Pad-mounted transformers contain high-voltage electrical equipment. Avoid contacting or tampering with a pad-mounted ground-level transformer for your protection. Also, never allow children to play on or near these transformers.

Pole-mount transformers should be treated in the same manner as an overhead powerline. Always maintain a safe distance of at least three metres (10 feet) from any pole-mount transformer.

If a pad-mount transformer is on your property, please maintain a clear path in front of the pad-locked unit.

Any obstruction like fences, shrubs, trees, or sheds can:

  • Create safety risks for our crews trying to access the transformer.
  • Delay service restoration during power outages.
  • Cause problems during routine maintenance of equipment.

Tree Trimming and Planting

You are responsible for keeping trees trimmed on your property. This will go a long way in avoiding power outages due to trees contacting powerlines.  Make sure you keep a safe distance away from overhead powerlines. 

Before starting any tree trimming, planting, or digging around your property, we recommend you take important steps to stay safe around dangerous powerlines.

Explore commonly asked questions and answers about trimming vegetation around customer-owned pole lines. More on ESA’s Guide for Planting Under or Around Powerlines and Electrical Equipment and Tree Trimming Around Powerlines.

Pole Line Tagging

Tree branches can hit or fall on powerlines and become energized, posing a danger to anyone who is nearby. We routinely trim trees in public spaces and along low-voltage power lines connecting to customer buildings to help keep tree branches a safe distance from power lines. Have concerns about trees and powerlines? Let us know by submitting an online Request a Site Visit / Report a Concern form.

Complete the Form
  • Look up and locate overhead powerlines by keeping your body/equipment at least 10 feet or three metres away from powerlines.
  • Contact Ontario One Call before you dig to locate underground powerlines.
  • Plant trees, shrubs and landscaping away from powerlines or access meters. Think ahead to how big plantings will grow as time passes. Follow municipal guidelines for planting.

You are responsible for trimming trees on your private property; a qualified contractor should do this. Any planting and tree trimming work needs to meet Electrical Safety Authority (ESA) standards.

Electrical Safety Colouring Sheets and Safety Videos

Be a Power Safe Kid! Use these colouring sheets to learn how to stay safe around electricity outdoors.

Lucky the Squirrel teaches you how to stay safe around electricity.

Farm Safety & Stray Voltage

Farms can have overhead and underground powerlines crossing the farm property. Even coming close to powerlines with farm equipment, ladders and tree limbs can cause the electricity to jump between the wire and the material that conducts electricity.

Varying amounts of low-level voltage often exist between the earth and electrically grounded farm equipment, such as metal stabling, feeders, or milk pipelines. The voltage that causes this small current is known as “animal contact voltage,” “stray voltage,” or “tingle voltage.” Usually, these voltage levels present no harm. However, at high enough levels, stray voltage may impact the health and behaviour of livestock.

The Electrical Safety Authority (ESA) has published an informative guide for farmers outlining how to identify and mitigate stray voltage at your property.

Download the Farm Stray Voltage Brochure

Additional Questions?

If you think you have a stray voltage problem affecting your livestock or have any questions or concerns about the electrical service on your property, please contact our Customer Care Team.

Contact Us