The province needs to improve its infrastructure and emergency planning, as Quebec society increasingly replaces fossil fuels with electricity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, says Normand Mousseau, scientific director of the Trottier Energy Institute of Polytechnique Montreal.
The current situation “shows how fragile we remain and how unprepared we are,” he said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
Mr. Mousseau, who is also a professor of physics at the University of Montreal, added that the impact of the outages will only worsen as Quebec’s electrification increases.
“People used to go in their cars to warm up overnight or for a few hours, but when we all have electric cars, we won’t be able to do that anymore,” he argued.
Hydro-Quebec maintained on Tuesday that the vast majority of its customers without electricity since the passage of the storm last Friday would be supplied again before Thursday.
Despite this announcement, the state company reported Wednesday that around 5:00 p.m., more than 10,000 of its subscribers had not yet found power. The hardest hit region remains the Capitale-Nationale, followed by the Laurentians, Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, Côte-Nord and Mauricie.
On Tuesday, a spokesman for Hydro-Quebec, Cendrix Bouchard, explained that about half of the interruptions affected ten customers or less.
“This means that each time we take action, we restore service to fewer customers in recent days. This is why we see the numbers decreasing, but less rapidly than over the last two or three days, ”he said.
Bury the wires
Normand Trottier believes that the Crown corporation should consider a program to gradually bury its overhead power lines, when it makes sense to do so.
The province should also develop a “real resilience plan” that could include installing high-powered batteries in certain areas to maintain some power when there are outages, he said.
A report by Auditor General Guylaine Leclerc released in December found that Hydro-Quebec’s service had become less reliable. She also noted that the state corporation “is not adequately equipped to face the growing challenge of aging assets”.
The report exposed that the average duration of outages increased by 63% between 2012 and 2021, when major weather events were excluded.
An $800 million plan launched in 2020 to reduce the number of service interruptions has only been partially achieved, according to the auditor general.
The CEO of Hydro-Québec, Sophie Brochu, argued Monday in a press briefing that it was extreme weather conditions – and not weaknesses in the network – that caused the loss of electricity for hundreds of thousands of Quebecers in Quebec. strongest of the storm that started in the province on December 23.
“Put any gear in front of a 120 km/h wind and we would be in exactly the same situation,” she said.
Hydro-Québec has also launched a program to make up for years of backlog in infrastructure maintenance, particularly in the cutting of trees and other plants near the lines.
The Auditor General’s report clearly showed that Hydro-Québec had underinvested in the maintenance of its equipment, underlined Mr. Mousseau.
He believes the state corporation used cost as an excuse to resist burying power lines. Hydro-Quebec should take the opportunity to bury the lines during road repairs, he added.
However, the government also has its share of responsibility, says the professor. Quebec does not have comprehensive mitigation and crisis management strategies that would protect citizens during outages.
In addition, the provincial government and municipalities have a duty to better plan land use to reduce urban sprawl and thereby ensure that electrical infrastructure is easier for crews to access, he said.
Also, Mr. Mousseau suggests that the Ministry of Public Security could develop a more detailed plan to provide emergency electricity and heating to people.
According to him, it is up to the municipalities, the government and Hydro-Québec to work together and develop a real strategy to ensure that Quebecers are not left in the dark and the cold.