Global Courant 2023-04-15 13:00:00
The ice storm that crippled Quebec and cut power to much of the province earlier this month has now officially ended. The last customers affected by the storm were back on the grid this week, Hydro-Québec said.
But we asked if you had any questions about the storm, the outages, or the aftermath. You sent us your questions and we answered them.
Here are your questions, answered:
Who decides what is connected first and why?
Hydro-Québec makes that call. The company says it prioritizes outages that pose an acute risk to public safety. That means it’s scrambling to get power back to hospitals and other emergency services.
Hydro-Québec also says it is trying first to address outages that affect large numbers of people. So if the utility has to choose between an outage that affects 1,000 people, or one that affects 10 people, they will rewire the first one first.
The Hydro-Québec website shows this image to explain how it prioritizes outages and decides who should reconnect first. (Hydro-Quebec)
Next on the priority level is what Hydro-Québec calls “strategic” priorities. That includes, for example, restoring service to media outlets and other urgent public communication services so that people can get information during crisis events.
Third, Hydro-Québec says it is trying to return power to “critical” priorities, including CHSLDs, clinics and other public services. Finally, residential and commercial buildings are at the bottom of the company’s priority list.
Ultimately, though, these priorities may change, says Hydro-Québec, “depending on the situation, the specific needs of a municipality or the requirements of public safety officials.”
How is it possible to have a distribution network that is so vulnerable in 2023?
Quebec’s auditor general expressed some concerns about the state of the Hydro-Québec network in a December report.
The report noted that outages were becoming more frequent and lasting in Quebec, partly because of the utility’s aging equipment, but also because Hydro-Québec had fallen behind in cutting back vegetation near cables.
You can read more about that here:
At the time, Hydro-Québec recognized that as infrastructure ages, it becomes more likely to fail and become more vulnerable to high winds and other inclement weather such as freezing rain — events that are expected to become more frequent due to climate change.
Why haven’t they controlled tree growth more successfully?
The Auditor General’s report criticized Hydro-Québec for underinvesting in protecting its lines from tree growth.
Hydro-Québec said two things were preoccupying crews and delaying preventive maintenance: an increase in extreme weather events and an increase in connection requests, which the company must respond to.
Will there be compensation for people who are without power for 5 days or more?
The government of Quebec announced that people on welfare who are without power for more than 24 hours will be eligible for financial assistance to cover food costs.
Aid is set at $75 per family member up to a maximum of $300 per household.
To see if you can file a claim with Hydro-Québec, please visit this website here. But the utility says its liability is limited.
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What is being done to prevent this from happening again?
Experts say there are a few things Hydro-Québec can do to prevent another storm from knocking out the grid.
Those things include burying wires, upgrading equipment, and investing more in protecting the wires from trees.
You can read more about that here:
But ultimately, some experts say, there’s not much the company can do to prevent a major natural disaster from wreaking havoc.
“It is extremely difficult to prepare for a period of disaster,” said Pierre-Olivier Pineau, an energy policy specialist and professor at HEC Montréal. “When there is a problem, everyone is quick to criticize, but when there are investments, they criticize the investments.”
Why does it seem that West Island has been hit the hardest or waited the longest for power to return?
The West Island is an area of Montreal with many large, old trees, many of which grow above power lines.
Hydro-Québec said all regions hit hard during the storm were places with many mature trees weighed down by ice.
“We have a very large network,” said Caroline Des Rosiers, a spokesperson for Hydro-Québec. “Some parts are aging, we could have done better maintenance in recent years, but this is not the cause of what happened last week. It is a vegetation problem, especially on the West Island.”
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Did Hydro call for help from outside the province during the last storm?
Yes, but also no.
Hydro-Québec did pay contractors to help with tree pruning, and some of those contractors brought in workers from New Brunswick and Ontario.
But the company did not enlist help from linemen from other provinces to reconnect the cables, as they have done in the past during major power outages, such as a winter storm in December.
The reason they didn’t, Hydro-Québec said, was because this storm was unique in the complexity of the disturbances it produced. It would have been too difficult to coordinate with workers from other counties who have different protocols for cutting power to areas with fallen trees, the company said.
