Upper Pontiac power outages: 2024 one of the worst on record
Upper Pontiac power outages: 2024 one of the worst on record
Frequent power outages are nothing new for residents of the upper Pontiac, the western edge of the MRC that encompasses Sheenboro, Chichester, Waltham, l’Isle-aux-Allumettes and parts of Mansfield.
L’Isle-aux-Allumettes farmer David Gillespie has been tracking the length and frequency of outages since 2009, and said that after a decline in the numbers over the previous few years, 2024 was a return to the bad old days. According to his records they had 68 outages in 2024 lasting 4,271 minutes, more than double 2023’s tally of 26 outages lasting 864 minutes (table below).
Gillespie added that over the years the unreliable service has resulted in serious impacts for residents and business owners of all kinds.
Hydro-Quebec community relations agent Marie-Lou St-Onge wrote that stormy weather in mid to late June contributed to “a significant portion of the outages” in the past year, adding that at the time, the region was synchronized with the Quebec grid, which contributed to the instability of the network in that area. The upper Pontiac has an odd electrical distribution set-up, where its two distribution lines are typically synchronized with the Ontario grid, but can be supplied from Quebec when needed, as was the case during the June outages. St-Onge noted that the large distance between their closest substation (located near Bryson) and the upper reaches of the region makes the system more vulnerable to outages, especially in wooded areas.
She added that the organization has conducted an in-depth analyses and identified 125 actions to be carried out on that part of the network (replacement of poles, insulators, etc.), which they presented to local officials late last year.
L’Isle-aux-Allumettes Mayor Corey Spence said that the increase in outages after several years of declines has been noticeable, particularly during the summer when they were doing maintenance on the lines to Ontario. He said that they would be meeting with Hydro-Quebec representatives again this spring to discuss the improvements they promised in late 2024, which he said were long-overdue.
Spence added that he would like to see improvements in Hydro-Quebec’s communications with local officials as well, something that has been raised in previous meetings with the organization.
YEAR | # of failures | # of minutes | # of minutes/failure |
2016 | 75 | 4,030 | 53.7 |
2017 | 58 | 784 | 13.5 |
2018 | 63 | 2,802 | 44.5 |
2019 | 103 | 2,675 | 26 |
2020 | 47 | 1,618 | 34.4 |
2021 | 37 | 718 | 19.4 |
2022 | 32 | 3,985 | 124.5 |
2023 | 26 | 874 | 33.6 |
2024 | 68 | 4,271 | 62.8 |
Disclosure: The above data was gathered and compiled by Gillespie and CHIP 101.9 has not been able to verify it independently. Gillespie is also vice-president of CHIP 101.9’s board of directors.