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Operational update

This news release was posted more than two years ago. View our latest news releases here.

Storm update: Crews restore power to 705,000 in 72 hours

VANCOUVER – BC Hydro estimates that 710,000 or 50 per cent of its 1.4 million customers on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland lost power due to Saturday's windstorm. The storm is believed to be the single largest outage event in BC Hydro's history.

Since Saturday, BC Hydro and its contract crews have been working through 1,800 "trouble calls" – individual work orders – related to the storm. Typically, on average, BC Hydro crews respond to about 2,000 trouble calls a month across the province.

Crews have managed to restore power to more than 705,000 customers over a span of 72 hours. As of 2 p.m. on Tuesday, about 3,500 BC Hydro customers, primarily in Surrey and Coquitlam remain without power. Some of these outages are new outages within the last 24 hours.

BC Hydro has called in personnel from Kamloops, Vernon, Prince George, Smithers, Terrace, Williams Lake, Fort St. John, 100 Mile House, Campbell River, Courtenay, Nanaimo, Victoria, Port Alberni, Duncan and Qualicum.

Crews are continuing to restore power to customers each hour. However, restoration efforts have been hampered over the last 15 hours due to adverse weather. For example, saturated soil in certain areas has made it unsafe for crews to bring in heavy equipment for repairs.

BC Hydro plans to have power restored to most customers before the dinner hour today.

Comparison to big 2006 storm

Comparison data description December 11, 2006 August 29, 2015
Peak number of customers without power 240,300 400,000
Number of customers out after 24 hours 78,794 227,000
Number of customers out after 72 hours 4,474 4,900
Number of damaged transmission circuits 12 25
Days required for complete restoration 10 4 (planned)
Cost $15.4 million TBD

 

Contact:
BC Hydro Media Relations
p. 604 928 6468