The state of the Hydro-Québec (HQ) electricity distribution network, whose reliability is in “marked decline” according to a recent report by the Auditor General, is not to blame for the hundreds of thousands of outages. caused by the winter storm, estimates its CEO, Sophie Brochu.
“What we went through has nothing to do with […] the obsolescence of the HQ system […]. Any equipment, in front of winds of 120 km/h, would be in the same situation. We are struggling with an extreme weather situation, ”she said during a press briefing late Monday morning.
Since Friday, no fewer than 600,000 HQ customers have been without power for varying periods of time due to a winter storm of rare magnitude that hit southern Quebec.
The situation has raised questions among the public about the state of Hydro-Québec’s electricity distribution network and its reliability during extreme weather events. Just last summer, an episode of high winds also deprived 550,000 Quebec customers.
More than 58,000 customers still without electricity
- Capitale-Nationale: 20,657 customers without electricity out of 438,203
- Saguenay – Lac-Saint-Jean: 10,402 customers without electricity out of 133,935
- Côte-Nord: 8,761 customers without electricity out of 48,699
- Laurentides: 5,125 customers without electricity out of 365,812
- Mauricie: 4,498 customers without electricity out of 169,325
- Outaouais: 2,470 customers without electricity out of 226,120
- Estrie: 1,170 customers without electricity out of 94,022
- Montérégie: 1,009 customers without electricity out of 813,432
- Montreal: 322 customers without electricity out of 1,083,243
Declining reliability
In a report published in early December, the Auditor General of Quebec, Guylaine Leclerc, noted that HQ “is not adequately equipped to face the growing challenge of the aging of its assets”. As a result, the reliability of its electricity distribution service shows a “marked decline”.
To reduce outages in its distribution network, HQ has planned a plan in 2020 whose implementation cost was estimated at $800 million. However, this plan does not take into account important aspects and that the results achieved in 2021 were “well below expectations”, denounced Guylaine Leclerc, in her report.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, PRESS ARCHIVES
The President and CEO of Hydro-Québec, Sophie Brochu
Although she “does not minimize” this report, the CEO of Hydro-Québec, Sophie Brochu, nevertheless judges that the network could not have emerged unscathed from the “extreme weather situation” with which it was confronted during the holiday season.
Workforce, always a challenge
HQ intends to take stock of the event, as it did following the “derecho” of last May. “What we are experiencing today is something pan-Quebec, and if we are to believe the evolution of climate change, we can expect [le] live again,” she explained.
The state-owned company has doubled its spending to carry out “vegetation checks” since 2021, recalled Sophie Brochu. If the state corporation previously carried out between 50 and 60 million of these interventions intended to protect its power lines from falling tree branches each, it now does 100 to 120 million a year.
She would also like to do more, but “access to labour” limits her power of action, says Sophie Brochu. “It is certain that when we are able to control the vegetation, there is less chance of having [à subir] falling tree branches. Now what we owed so much [durant cette tempête hivernale]it was not tree branches, but whole trees that fell,” she later lamented.