(Montreal) Hydro-Quebec is maintaining its goal of restoring power to 95% of its customers plunged into darkness since Wednesday’s ice storm by Sunday evening.
Some subscribers will however have to wait until Tuesday because of complex cases to be settled, indicated in a press briefing Sunday morning the director of Energy System Control at Hydro-Québec, Maxime Nadeau.
By 11:15 a.m. Sunday, there were about 110,000 state-owned utility customers still without power, meaning nearly 90% of the 1.1 million homes that lost access to heating and in the light this week have already been reconnected.
The Montreal region remained the hardest hit, with 77,000 customers without electricity Sunday morning, but the situation had improved considerably compared to the previous day. Saturday morning, around the same time, the report showed nearly 190,000 customers without heating or electricity in Montreal.
The other regions still affected by outages on Sunday morning were Outaouais (13,000), Montérégie (13,000), Laval (6,000) and Laurentides (1,000).
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, THE PRESS
Saturday morning, the state company estimated that 100,000 to 150,000 customers would have to wait until Monday, at the earliest, before finding electricity.
About 1,500 Hydro-Quebec employees, 40% of whom are in Montreal, are working in the field to reconnect subscribers, indicated the vice-president, operations and maintenance, at Hydro-Quebec, Régis Tellier, during a press briefing. Sunday morning.
In order to offer respite to people who regained power on Saturday evening, and to those who will be reconnected in the coming hours, the government has announced that food markets will be able to remain open in these regions on Sunday, despite Easter Day. . This will also be the case in Lanaudière, where the number of breakdowns was high on Saturday.
In the meantime, the government recalled on Saturday that more than 100 emergency centers have opened their doors in the most affected regions, in order to allow people for whom the blackout is prolonged to go to warm up, eat and recharge their batteries. electronic appliances.