Intense cold slows power restoration for thousands in Montreal
CBC
Thousands of Hydro-Québec customers in Montreal’s west end are still without power Monday evening, and the Crown corporation says it may not come back on until Tuesday.Hydro-Québec is asking customers to curb energy use as crews work to repair an equipment failure at the Hampstead substation. While most customers had their power restored after it was cut Saturday morning, more than 5,000 Montreal customers were without electricity late Monday.
The restoration effort has been complicated by intense cold, which Hydro-Québec says is creating a strain on the local grid. As power is restored to frigid homes, heating systems immediately run at maximum capacity, causing localized overloads that risk triggering new outages.
“We must proceed very gradually with restoring service, a few customers at a time, to avoid overloading the grid and causing new outages,” Hydro-Québec said in a statement.
To help stabilize the network, the utility is urging residents in Côte-Saint-Luc, Hampstead, Montreal West and Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce who are not affected by the outage to lower their thermostats by a few degrees and limit the use of energy-intensive appliances such as dryers and dishwashers.
Hydro-Québec acknowledged the impact of prolonged outages during extreme cold and encouraged affected residents to consult their municipal websites for the locations of warming centres. This came after Montreal residents woke up to snow-filled skies and slippery streets on Monday.
Some Montreal schools announced weather-related closures on Monday, while other closures were related to ongoing power outages on the Montreal island.
The announced closures included:
"We completely understand the impact of a power outage in this extreme cold, our thoughts are obviously with all the affected customers. Restoring the service safely and rapidly is our priority,” Hydro-Québec spokesperson Lynn St-Laurent said.
St-Laurent said the utility can't bring power back all at once because it puts too much strain on the system.
The affected communities have set up warming centres. The Red Cross also opened an overnight emergency shelter at the Côte-des-Neiges community centre while Montreal firefighters spent Sunday going door-to-door to perform wellness checks.
On Monday, the Aquatic and Community Centre in Côte Saint-Luc remained accessible to affected residents looking to warm up, have a shower or grab a cup of coffee, with regular programming resuming.
In NDG, several municipal facilities were also ready to welcome those affected by outages including the Côte-des-Neiges Community Recreation Centre, Centre communautaire Monkland, Bibliothèque de Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Bibliothèque Benny, Centre sportif Côte-des-Neiges and Bibliothèque de Côte-des-Neiges.
At the height of the outages on Saturday, around 20,000 Hydro-Québec customers on the island of Montreal were in the dark.
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