Hydro-Québec meets with elected officials of Upper-Pontiac

Representatives of Hydro-Québec met with the elected officials of five municipalities (L'Isle-aux-Allumettes, Sheenboro, Waltham, Chichester, and Mansfield-et-Pontefract) and the Member of the National Assembly for Pontiac, André Fortin, in L'Isle-aux-Allumettes. 

The meeting focused on the power outages of June 17-18 and June 23-24.

During these two events, storm cells (wind and rain) were the cause of a significant portion of the outages. The heavily wooded area is unfortunately prone to contact between power lines and vegetation.

In 2023, Hydro-Québec intensified its vegetation control operations in the Pontiac, and our teams are working hard to complete the annual planning over the coming months.

It should be noted that in June, the two distribution lines (WAL 221 and WAL 224) that supply Upper-Pontiac were synchronized with the Quebec grid rather than the Ontario grid, as is usually the case. This temporary configuration increased the network's length and made it more vulnerable during weather events, particularly in wooded areas.

The analysis of the outages has identified areas for improvement to react more effectively in the future and restore electricity service more quickly during an outage. It was agreed that we will follow up on what has been done and what will be done during a meeting next autumn.