Global Courant 2023-04-25 21:43:00
Hydro-Quebec says it is investigating a “loss of production” on its power grid on Tuesday that caused widespread power outages across the province.
Nearly half a million customers were without power at the height of the outage in the early afternoon. Of the 498,000 customers who lost electricity, more than 140,000 were on the island of Montreal. Other hard-hit areas included the Montérégie region, the Laurentians and Laval.
The outage map on the Hydro-Quebec website shows that most power outages are in the Montreal area. (Source: hydroquebec.com)
Shortly after the outage began, power began to come back for some customers, although many still have no electricity.
Hydro-Quebec spokesperson Caroline Desrosiers said the Crown company doesn’t yet know what caused the power outage, but teams are investigating.
In a tweet, Hydro-Quebec said the loss of production occurred at the Churchill Falls power station, which triggered a protective mechanism to cut power.
“Please note that you do not have to report the fault via the Info Panning service and that the delays estimated by Info Panes do not apply to this type of fault as there are no works on the distribution network.” tweeted.
The loss of production of certain turbine generator units at Churchill Falls Power Station has triggered protection mechanisms on our high voltage transmission network, causing a power outage. #malfunction affecting approximately 490,000 customers across Quebec.
Our teams investigate…
— Hydro-Quebec (@hydro_customer) April 25, 2023
As of 1:15 p.m., there were 170 separate outages in Montreal affecting more than 135,000 customers. In Montérégie, there are 93 outages affecting 129,000 customers. In the Laurentians, there were 55 outages that left more than 44,000 customers without power.
This is an evolving story. More to come
Major power outages reported throughout Quebec
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