The freezing rainstorm that struck on April 5, 2023 left its mark on thousands of Montrealers who were without power for several days. However, they may have to get used to this type of event, believes a Hydro-Québec lineman.
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After a few days of work in Sainte-Julie in Montérégie, Steven Ménard found himself on the front line as teams from the state-owned company were deployed to metropolitan Quebec to restore power to homes.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY HYDRO-QUÉBEC
Steven Menard
“It's rare for Montreal to be without power for so long,” the chief plumber recalled more than seven months after the events.
For almost six days, he worked tirelessly with his colleagues, 16 hours a day, to bring Montreal households out of the darkness, but above all, the cold.
Upon arriving on the island, the main difficulty for the lineman quickly became clear: he had to deal with the hundreds of broken branches that fell on the power cables.
Photo agency QMI, Joël Lemay
“The whole province was there to help as quickly as possible,” he said. I think I have colleagues from Sept-Îles who came. […] Every team, every lineman, every jointer, everyone pulled together to help.”
Go quickly but remain cautious
In a rush to find heat or get their refrigerators back up and running, Montrealers affected by the outages quickly established higher-than-normal demand for electricity, creating several obstacles for line workers.
“The peak of high electricity demand meant that our systems were in too much demand and fell into the red [panne]» explained Mr Ménard. “But we understand people, electricity, we don’t see it, but when we really need it, we see that it’s really important.”
Despite the stress of restoring power very quickly, Hydro-Québec teams must also take the time to coordinate with each other to ensure their safety during interventions.
Joël Lemay / QMI Agency
“Yes, we have a certain pressure from customers, that's normal, we want to give the customer as much as possible, but we always have to remember that electricity can kill,” recalls the man, who has been working as an installer since 2009 .
Not the first, but not the last either
For Steven Ménard, the ice storm is not the biggest meteorological event he has had to take part in. Rather, it is the derecho and its strong winds that hit the south of the province in May 2022.
The ice storm of 2023 was also much less problematic than the one of 1998, when electricity poles gave way under the ice and fell to the ground, recalled the man who at the time witnessed how his father, also a network operator, put everything back in order.
What created a sense of urgency last April was Montrealers' lack of preparation in the face of such inclement weather.
“Sometimes people in the region have more generators and more ways to make ends meet, while people in Montreal are less accustomed to a lack of electricity. The difference was there,” he noted.
Purchasing a small generator could therefore become a must for homes in Montreal.
“Devastating storms are becoming more common than ever before,” emphasized Ménard. In summer and winter, in hurricanes or ice, we are no longer safe from this.”
The ice storm of April 2023 in a few numbers
· Total 9669 failures
· 1,310,000 customers affected, including 1,125,000 customers at the same time
· 115,000 working hours for linesmen and women
· More than 1500 employees on duty
· More than 300 posts replaced
· 440 transformers replaced
· 50 km of electrical cable laid
Source: Hydro-Québec