After thousands were stranded in cold, dark apartments after December’s ice storm knocked out electricity, an independent review panel is calling for stricter requirements for emergency backup power in highrise buildings.

“Think of how many senior citizens — people who are ill or infirm — are in 30-storey buildings. If they have a health emergency and the elevators aren’t working, who gets there? How do they get there?” said David McFadden, chair of the Toronto Hydro Independent Review panel.

The group of experts recommended the province beef up the building code to require all new and existing highrise buildings to provide backup power for a longer period of time — part of a lengthy report released Wednesday examining Toronto Hydro’s response to the devastating ice storm.

Read the panel’s report

“Right now, the building code only requires that landlords have backup power for two hours, to allow for emergency evacuations. What we learned in this storm was that was absolutely inadequate,” said Councillor Janet Davis, who enthusiastically endorsed the proposal.

“We had thousands of people in highrise apartments, stuck in freezing cold apartments, who were unable to get down elevators to get basic things,” Davis said.

Under the current building code, any building more than 18 metres high — approximately six storeys — must have a generator to power safety systems such as emergency lighting, fire alarms, a sprinkler system and a single elevator, explained Peera Butrsingkorn, an electrical engineer with Able Engineering Inc.

To run for longer periods of time, diesel generators would require larger fuel tanks, Butrsingkorn said.

Generators hooked up directly to a natural gas line are also an option. But they can cost as much as three times more, Butrsingkorn said, and get significantly more expensive on a larger scale.

Under the panel’s proposal, apartment buildings would have to provide power for essential needs such as refrigeration, heating and phone services during extended power outages.

Producing electricity to keep the telephones working would not add much additional load, Butrsingkorn said. But upgrading the generator to handle other systems, particularly power-hungry ones such as air conditioning or refrigerators, would require significantly more electrical output.

“It could more than double the size of the generator,” Butrsingkorn said.

That, in turn, would require costly retrofits of existing buildings.

“It’s tough to retrofit an old building, to find space for a generator to have the room, meet the codes, vent properly and not make noise to disturb the neighbours,” said Bill Thompson, a property manager who sits on the board of directors of the Canadian Condominium Institute.

A further complication is that residential towers may be wired differently; some buildings supply individual units directly with power, but not others.

“All of those different layouts all have different power requirements and wiring schemes that make it possible or not possible to provide heat and electricity to the units,” Thompson said.

Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, a fiscal conservative, said he might well support the recommendation, even though it will come at a cost to landlords and tenants.

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“To support this, we have to understand that there will be additional costs associated with this. And we know that landlords pass on those costs through the rent and above-guideline increases. So residents have to know that to get better service in an emergency, there’ll be a cost associated with this, and they’ll likely be paying for it through the rent,” Minnan-Wong said.

City manager Joe Pennachetti said he “100 per cent” agreed with the panel’s recommendation, and would move quickly to bring a proposal before city council.

Charlene Millett, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, thanked the panel for its recommendations and said the ministry considers all suggestions for changes to the building code.