We’ve learned that Hydro-Québec is on track to break a new overtime record and could spend more than $225 million to do so this year. The newspaper.
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From the beginning of January to the end of September, Hydro was billed for more than 2.4 million hours of overtime, costing the company $163.7 million, the Crown corporation said in its response to a request for information.
If this trend continues, 2023 would mark a new record for Hydro-Québec in this regard. In 2022, Hydro employees had worked nearly 3 million hours of overtime – a bill of nearly $211 million.
Storms and forest fires
The state-owned company primarily cites “climate-related outages” and “the high demand for network connections” as explanations for the significant increase in overtime.
Remember that in May 2022 a series of severe storms (derecho) hit southern Quebec and that in December a strong storm hit the province. In both cases, more than 500,000 customers lost power.
This year, Hydro experienced a freezing rainstorm in April that left more than a million customers in the dark.
In the following months, the state-owned company then had to mobilize several teams in response to the unprecedented wildfires that broke out in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, the North Coast and Nord-du-Québec.
Complicated connection requests
In response to the sharp increase in the number of connection requests, particularly in the residential sector, Hydro-Québec also required several of its employees to work overtime.
In 2022, Hydro said it received 17,000 “simple” requests and 44,000 “complicated” requests. According to the Crown corporation, the number of requests requiring work from engineers has actually increased by 50% compared to 2019.
“The numerous resources we use to respond to connection requests, which have increased significantly in recent months, have also impacted the additional time,” said Louis-Olivier Batty, a spokesperson for Hydro-Quebec.
Despite these efforts, the number of waiting customers continues to increase. At the start of the month, Hydro counted 492 residential connection or electricity requests made more than 24 months ago, whether for primary residences or holiday homes.
Earlier this month, the new CEO of Hydro-Québec, Michael Sabia, assured that he wanted to initiate a turnaround in this regard, admitting that the state-owned company’s level of service was “not up to scratch”. Meeting”.
Overtime at Hydro-Québec
2023 (first nine months): $164 million
2022: $211 million
2021: $160 million
2020: $138 million
2019: $164 million
Source: Hydro-Québec
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