Labrador power outage caused by wildfires on both sides of border
CBC
Power has been restored to all parts of Labrador as of Tuesday morning, but a threat to the grid continues — forest fires burning near key transmission lines that bring electricity into the province.
The Big Land had a major outage on Monday, with nearly all customers left in the dark for several hours. Power was restored to western Labrador first, with customers around Happy Valley-Goose Bay coming back online late Monday night.
"There are forest fires on both sides of the border that are directly below the three transmission lines that send power from Churchill Falls to Hydro-Quebec," explained a spokesperson for Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro. "As a result of the heat and other factors, the high voltage lines can trip off."
When that happens, it creates a ripple effect through the system resulting in outages. Power was restored Monday by activating a gas turbine for a backup supply.
N.L. Hydro explained to customers on social media the process was gradual, and they had to be careful to stagger restoration as to not overload the system.
The utility company said it had problems with the backup generator in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, which led to a longer restoration time.
Provincial crews are monitoring or fighting five forest fires as of Tuesday morning. While none of those are near communities where people live, two of them are threatening crucial infrastructure.
One is 12 kilometres from the rail line that brings passengers, iron ore and critical supplies in and out of Labrador West. The other worrisome fire caused power outages.
"One was in a close vicinity of the transmission line so we did have a water bomber out there to try to keep that fire in check," said Wesley Morgan, a provincial forest fire duty officer.
Morgan said most of the fires are relatively stagnant, and don't pose a threat to residents of Labrador at this stage. Conditions are expected to improve in Labrador West with precipitation in the forecast on Tuesday.
The rest of Labrador, however, is expected to remain dry throughout the day.
"Typically this time of the year we have a lot of lightning move through the area," he explained. "And most of these fires are remote fires that can start and are usually natural fires."
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