The majority of the approximately 40,000 Hydro-Quebec customers who were still without electricity, Monday at the beginning of the afternoon, should be reconnected by Wednesday, according to the state company.
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According to the state company’s most recent report, around 11 p.m., 39,919 customers were still without power.
As since the start of the storm on Friday, it is the Capitale-Nationale which is the most affected region, with another 12,305 homes in the dark.
Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean is just behind, with 7,756 customers without electricity. Mauricie comes next (6,284 customers), followed by Côte-Nord (6,274 customers), Laurentians (3,276 customers), Mauricie (6,284 customers), Bas-Saint-Laurent (1,646 customers) and Outaouais (977).
A complex job
Nearly 1,200 employees are on the ground Monday, to try to restore electricity as quickly as possible.
They face great challenges since some places where they have to carry out repairs are difficult to access. Employees have to get there by snowmobile and even snowshoes.
“We also have nearly 10 helicopters patrolling to do scouting, icebreaking […] we couldn’t deploy them before [à cause des conditions métrologiques]but today we have good visibility,” said Senior Director of Operations & Maintenance Centre-du-Québec for Hydro-Québec, Julie Sbeghen, during a press briefing on Monday.
Hydro-Québec has restored service to nearly 605,000 customers, or about 90% of all homes without electricity, explained Sophie Brochu, President and CEO of Hydro-Québec, as well as Julie Sbeghen, Senior Director of Operations and Maintenance. , during a press briefing.
At the height of the event on the night of Friday to Saturday, there were approximately 380,000 customers out of order simultaneously.
“We learn every day and after an event like this we will do a post mortem […]. If we are to believe the evolution of climate change, we can expect to relive [ce genre d’évènement] so we are going to prepare even better”, for her part indicated Sophie Brochu.
Hydro-Quebec hopes to be able to connect all customers who no longer have electricity by Wednesday.