The majority of Quebecers will not have to spend Christmas in the dark. Hydro-Quebec aims to restore most of the more than 340,000 customers without electricity before Sunday evening, December 25. However, some outages will continue until the beginning of the week.
” These are large-scale blackouts that cover all of Quebec. We are working as quickly as possible, but with great concern for the safety of our employees and the public,” said Éric Fillion, Executive Vice-President, Chief Operating Officer and Customer Experience Officer, at a press conference on Friday after -midday.
Around 4 p.m., Hydro-Québec recorded more than 1,800 outages across the province, mainly caused by heavy snow and tree branches on power lines.
“We aim to restore the majority of customers for Sunday evening, Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, there will still be outages which will continue at the start of the week, Monday and Tuesday, especially in places where we are more isolated and where there are fewer customers per outage, ”said Mr. Fillion.
However, the weather is slowing down travel on the network and preventing workers from carrying out certain interventions. “We also have gusts of more than 100 km/h which have occurred in various places in Quebec and which complicate the situation. These winds will continue until the evening of December 24,” indicated Mr. Fillion.
With 84,000 customers without power, the Quebec region is the most affected, followed by Montérégie (53,000), Laurentides (32,000), Outaouais (30,000) and Estrie (24,000). New outages are also expected in the coming hours, said Fillion.
With just under 14,000 customers without power, Montreal is relatively spared. The Hydro-Quebec teams located in Montreal are lending a hand to those on the South Shore and in the Laurentians, indicated Mr. Fillion.
Currently, 1,100 Hydro-Québec workers are on the ground to restore power.