Toronto Hydro says it is working to restore power to a large swath of the downtown core following a widespread outage on Tuesday.
It is unclear exactly how many customers are currently impacted but the outage appears to be affecting homes and businesses between University Avenue and Yonge Street, south of Dundas Street.
“We sincerely apologize for the disruption as we understand how difficult it is to be without power,” Toronto Hydro said in a post on social media.
Toronto police confirmed that the outage is impacting numerous traffic lights and those intersections should be treated as four-way stops.
Outage in downtown Toronto Outage in downtown Toronto, Tuesday, May 26, 2026. (Toronto Hydro) Eaton Centre, TMU impacted
Electronic billboards outside the Eaton Centre were also blank at around noon on Tuesday.
Hydro One said fire crews are currently onsite at the Terauley Transmission Station, located near Bay and Dundas streets.
“We continue to work with Toronto Hydro to restore power to customers while crews onsite determine the extent of the damage caused by a small fire and the required repairs,” Hydro One said in a statement to CTV News Toronto.
Toronto Metropolitan University said the power outage is impacting some areas of the downtown campus and students in some buildings, including RAC, JOR, POD, LIB, TRS, SLC, YNG, and YDI, should evacuate immediately.
“Evacuation is required because a utilities failure of this nature may compromise the building’s life-safety systems (i.e. fire-detection and sprinkler systems),” an email from the university read.
“For your safety, please avoid these areas of campus.”
All classes, labs or exams being held in these buildings will be paused until power is restored, the email continued.
Employees who work in those buildings have been told to “find an alternate place to work or take a break nearby until the power failure has been resolved.”
“Employees who provide essential services on campus should check with their leaders for further instructions,” the email read.
Transformer fire knocks out power to hundreds of customers in downtown Toronto Transformer fire knocks out power to hundreds of customers in downtown Toronto, Tuesday, May 26, 2026. Power back on at SickKids Hospital
SickKids Hospital said it experienced a “temporary power failure” across all buildings but the lights are now back on.
“Power has been restored and teams are assessing impacts,” the downtown hospital said in a social media post.
“Care is continuing and the hospital is operating, including the Emergency Department and clinics.”
In a statement to CTV News Toronto, Toronto Hydro called the outage “an evolving situation.”
“…we don’t yet have a confirmed estimated time of restoration. However, we’ve been able to work with Hydro One to restore some customers,” the statement read.