(Québec) Hydro-Québec, la plus importante entreprise qui appartient aux Québécois, « n’est pas outillée adéquatement pour faire face au défi grandissant du vieillissement de ses actifs ». Conséquence : la fiabilité de son service de distribution d’électricité présente une « baisse marquée », constate la vérificatrice générale du Québec, Guylaine Leclerc.
Mme Leclerc a déposé mercredi au Salon bleu le tome de décembre du rapport de la vérificatrice générale du Québec pour l’année 2022-2023. On y apprend que les pannes dues aux équipements défaillants ont affecté en 2021 près de 2 millions de clients.
« La fiabilité du service de distribution d’électricité d’Hydro-Québec présente une baisse marquée, et son plan de réduction des pannes n’a été que partiellement mis en œuvre. […] A significant part of the preventive maintenance efforts that Hydro-Québec must carry out is not accomplished,” said Ms.me Leclerc, specifying that “the improvement works that it envisaged in 2020 have not started”.
To reduce outages in its distribution network, Hydro-Québec has planned a plan in 2020, the cost of which was estimated at $800 million. Guylaine Leclerc denounces, however, that this plan does not take into account important aspects and that the results achieved in 2021 were “well below expectations”.
“In particular, only about a quarter of the work orders planned for the period have been carried out. [De plus]Hydro-Québec also had to revise its estimate of the cost of this plan, which now stands at $1.14 billion, and its schedule could be extended by ten years if the pace of work in 2021 is maintained. “, reveals the auditor general.
Increased aging
Mme Leclerc also recalls that the state-owned company will be confronted over the next few years with the aging of its assets, and that this aging will “accelerate”, at the same time as the Legault government affirms that it will be necessary to build “a half-Hydro -Quebec” to meet the province’s energy needs on its road to a carbon neutral economy by 2050.
But already, faced with the current aging of its assets, “the state-owned company is not adequately equipped to face this challenge,” notes Ms.me Leclerc.
“Furthermore, a significant part of the preventive maintenance efforts that Hydro-Québec must carry out have not been accomplished, particularly with regard to its overhead line inspection program. Finally, although the quality of its data presents shortcomings, the improvement work that it envisaged in 2020 has not begun,” adds the Auditor General.