news-col-date">Montreal, January 19, 2023
From December 23 in the morning until December 25, a storm of rare intensity characterized by very violent winds crossed all of Quebec. Gusts of 110 km/h swept through much of the province, causing more than 7,500 outages that affected some 640,000 customers.
At the height of the event, approximately 380,000 homes were without electricity. Note that 63 hours later, 85% of them were reconnected. Hydro-Québec wishes to thank its customers for their patience and understanding, and to underscore the mobilization of its personnel and partners.
Between Dec. 23 and 30, about 1,200 workers were on the ground each day, voluntarily postponing their holiday vacations. They worked tirelessly in harsh weather conditions, facing several challenges: the vast expanse of the territory hit by the storm, the prolonged duration of the storm and the difficult access to certain areas which sometimes required the use snowmobiles or snowshoes. Our teams in the field were supported in their work by numerous employees responsible for logistics, administration and communications.
Between Dec. 23 and 30, about 1,200 workers were on the ground each day, voluntarily postponing their holiday vacations. They worked tirelessly in harsh weather conditions, facing several challenges: the vast expanse of the territory hit by the storm, the prolonged duration of the storm and the difficult access to certain areas which sometimes required the use snowmobiles or snowshoes. Our teams in the field were supported in their work by numerous employees responsible for logistics, administration and communications.
Hydro-Québec wishes to make its customers aware of the fact that the tens of thousands of additional hours of work generated by the outages have led to postponements of work scheduled and will lead to others in the coming weeks. Our staff will do everything possible to minimize delays. We thank our customers in advance for their understanding.
In order to reduce the likelihood of outages occurring during major weather events, we will actively pursue our vegetation control work, which consists of cutting branches likely to fall on electrical wires. In recent years, we have doubled our investments in this area, which reached $100 million last year.
Highlights:
- cost of work caused by the December 2022 storm: approximately $55 million;
- 7,529 failures in total;
- 640,000 homes without electricity;
- 380,758 customers affected simultaneously at the height of the storm on December 24, at 1 a.m.; these were households located mainly in the Outaouais, Laurentides and Capitale-Nationale regions;
- on December 26, electricity was restored to 85% of homes, 63 hours after the peak of the storm;
- on December 27, electricity was restored to 95% of homes, 93 hours after the peak of the storm;
- 160,000 hours worked by our line workers;
- more than 1,200 employees on the job for 8 days;
- more than 500 poles replaced;
- more than 530 transformers replaced;
- 63 km of electrical wires installed.
Citations
“The holiday season is without a doubt one of the worst times of the year to be without electricity. We know that and that’s why we rolled up our sleeves and worked tirelessly until all homes were back on. Our line fitters were present and present once again, not hesitating to make themselves available voluntarily during the holiday season, knowing that our customers needed them and them. I would like to thank our customers for their patience and understanding. »
– Sophie Brochu, President and CEO of Hydro-Québec.
“This is the second extreme weather event to hit Quebec in 2022, after the derecho of May 21. Although these thousands of outages are attributable to unusual weather conditions, we will continue our efforts in the future to control vegetation near power lines and increase the robustness of our infrastructures. Customers are at the heart of our priorities. »
– Éric Filion, Executive Vice-President, Chief Operating Officer and Customer Experience Officer, Hydro-Québec
Informations :
Hydro-Quebec
514 289-5005