Emotions run high at Summerside council meeting as city fights to keep lights on

Staff with Summerside Electric say they're not getting many updates from Maritime Electric after a failure at the utility's Sherbrooke substation over a week ago caused a heavy — and expensive — strain on the city's electrical grid.

"Our system can deliver. Once it hits our doorstep, we can turn those electricity units back to the customers at a 60-megawatt capacity — our peak is 35," said Greg Gaudet, director of municipal services for Summerside.

"We don't have an issue for growth or providing electricity. The piece of the puzzle for us is getting it to our doorstep."

Right now, that can't be done without Maritime Electric fixing their equipment, Gaudet said during a Summerside council meeting on Wednesday night.

"Summerside Electric is still collaborating with Maritime Electric to use all the resources we can to prevent the worst-case situation from occurring," he said, speaking of the prospect of rolling blackouts in the city in the height of winter.

"Maritime Electric has 1970s-vintage engines in Borden[-Carleton] — generation units — that are tied to the same system we are on. So they can backstop our units should we fail," Gaudet said.

Gaudet said he has learned from Maritime Electric that a transformer would be coming in from Newfoundland to replace the failed unit, but he still doesn't know when the electricity grid will be stable again.

In a social media post, the utility said a 50 megavolt-ampere mobile transformer unit has arrived on P.E.I. from Newfoundland Power Inc., and technicians are connecting it to the Sherbrooke substation.

In a followup post Thursday evening, Maritime Electric said its team is continuing to work on the unit. 

"We are currently estimating that work will continue into the weekend. We will provide another update when the system has returned to normal conditions," the post reads.

Gaudet was emotional when he mentioned some of the difficulties that business owners in Summerside have faced because of the city's ask to conserve power.

"I can't stress enough the strength of the community. We had businesses actually shut down last week which we don't like to see. They closed their doors. They ran their own generators and it feels like we failed," he said.

"Sorry, I'm getting emotional, but it feels that way because we don't fail."

Right now, we are happy to continue to make sure we are doing everything we can to get power on.— Summerside Mayor Dan Kutcher

Summerside Mayor Dan Kutcher doesn't believe any of the issues facing the power grid are the fault of the city's power utility, he said.

Right now, the city is spending $100,000 a day to keep power running. During Wednesday's city council meeting, Coun. Justin Doiron wanted to know who would have to front that cost.

Gaudet didn't have a clear answer, but Kutcher thinks the cost should be borne by the company that can't connect the city to a steady power supply.

"Maritime Electric. I think those are damages we are accruing as a result of their failed transformer," Kutcher said.

"Right now, we are happy to continue to make sure we are doing everything we can to get power on. Long term, that's something that's just not financially stable for the City of Summerside."

Both Gaudet and Kutcher said there aren't many updates from Maritime Electric on when things could be repaired at the Sherbrooke substation, other than that the issue is being worked on.

"In terms of the communications, it has been bumpy, there is no doubt, at the operational level," Kutcher said.

While there has been no firm timeline provided by Maritime Electric, Kutcher continues to have conversations with the utility's CEO, Jason Roberts.

"Those conversations aren't always overly friendly. They are blunt, and they are direct," Kutcher said.

The city has been relying a bit more on diesel generators, but Summerside Electric has had issues with generators overheating. Typically, they produce 15 megawatts of power — now that's down to nine, Gaudet told city council.

"We run them, as a city, normally 10 to 20 hours a month. The past week, we've been running them 10 to 20 hours a day. And that is our back-up system we've been running as a primary system. So some of them have run hot. There was damage to one of them," Kutcher said.

Summerside Electric is waiting on parts from the United Kingdom. Once those are received, it'll take weeks to make all the repairs to the diesel generator, Gaudet said.

Kutcher points out that Maritime Electric and Summerside Electric rely on each other.

"Summerside has the only generation assets in the western part of the Island, with the exception of the wind farm up west. So, we're called on frequently, even by Maritime Electric… to run our diesel generators to help support load. So, the role we play goes beyond our boundaries," he said.