City of Summerside calls off blackouts, saying Maritime Electric has reversed plan to slash power
Officials were told utility had to redirect power to Cavendish Farms, says mayor
Though a plan to institute two-hour rolling blackouts Tuesday night has been called off, Summerside's mayor says he's not happy about how his city of 17,000 people has been treated by Maritime Electric this week.
In an interview with CBC News late Tuesday, Dan Kutcher said the utility that serves most of Prince Edward Island — with the exception of Summerside, which has a municipally owned power company — told city officials it would be drastically reducing the amount of power it was going to allow into Summerside on Tuesday night.
They were told the supply would drop from 28 megawatts to just two, the mayor said.
"Our teams are being told that [Maritime Electric] redirected power to Cavendish Farms, which would be 14 megawatts, to bring them back online," Kutcher said, speaking of the frozen foods processor that is one of the Island's largest companies, based in New Annan.
"We have hundreds of people in Summerside who work [at Cavendish Farms]... but we have people sitting here at night with the lights off, worried about their loved ones as their power sits off and their homes get colder," Kutcher said.
Summerside's utility had been planning on rolling power outage Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, as the community continued to experience temperatures of around –10 C, with the wind chill making it feel like –17.
But late Tuesday afternoon, after Kutcher spoke to CBC News, the city issued a statement saying Maritime Electric officials had got back to them to say they would give Summerside enough power for the night.
"Maritime Electric has now guaranteed us enough power for this evening, meaning rotational circuit outages will not be necessary tonight, and we will have enough power to operate," the statement said.
Substation still under repair
Earlier Tuesday, the City of Summerside said rolling blackouts would be needed in the wake of an outage across western P.E.I. early Monday.
At the height of that incident, more than 19,000 customers in the western part of the Island lost power due to damage at the Maritime Electric substation north of Summerside.
The outage shut down schools, caused appointment cancellations at health-care facilities, and raised concerns for residents and businesses.
Power was restored by midday, but the city warned that its power utility might have to trigger rotating blackouts Monday evening as Maritime Electric crews worked to repair the substation. That ended up not being necessary, the city said in a social media post Tuesday morning.
But hours later, a media update said that "due to the ongoing damage to the Maritime Electric Sherbrooke Substation, we will be turning off circuits across the city on a rotational basis to help manage power loads."
The statement said the rolling blackouts would be needed from 5 to 10 p.m. Tuesday, with individual customers' power staying off for about two hours before being restored.
Residents of Prince Edward Island's second-biggest community were urged to be energy conscious by:
- turning off unnecessary lights;
- unplugging electronics or appliances that aren't being used;
- not using large appliances like dishwashers, ovens or dryers; and
- shifting non-essential tasks like laundry to non-peak hours.
Meanwhile, Maritime Electric was continuing to ask Islanders outside the Summerside area to take similar steps to conserve energy in an effort to reduce demand on the provincewide electrical system.
'Interruptible customer'
The City of Summerside generates much of its own electricity but buys additional energy from New Brunswick Power, which sends it to P.E.I. via an underwater cable system. Maritime Electric infrastructure has to be used to move the purchased electricity to Summerside's grid.
Jason Roberts, Maritime Electric's president and CEO, said Summerside becomes an "interruptible customer" in the event of the kind of constraints on P.E.I.'s system that were experienced this week.
"They receive service from our…transmission system. They take it on a contingency basis, so when the transformer came out of service, then they weren't able to access our system like they normally do," Roberts told CBC News
"We have an obligation to serve our customers first and foremost, and that's what we're doing."
As for the mayor saying the power was diverted to Cavendish Farms, Roberts replied: "I can't speak to any particular customer for privacy reasons, obviously. But we are committed to serving our customers as best we can."
Roberts told CBC News he didn't expect any more outages Tuesday night. He said peak times Wednesday and Thursday could be a challenge because a dip in temperatures will encourage Prince Edward Islanders to use more electricity to heat their homes.
He was not able to offer a timeline for repairs on the Sherbrooke substation, calling the process "day-to-day."
Reacting to a warning that the power might go off during the day Wednesday, English and French school authorities advised parents with children in Summerside-area schools to provide them with "lunches and snacks that do not require heating or cooking." Officials said they don't anticipate having to delay classes or close schools, though.
'It's very scary'
Meanwhile, the Official Opposition wants to hear from P.E.I. Energy Minister Gilles Arsenault about the uncertainty surrounding the province's power grid.
Hal Perry, the interim leader of the Liberal Party of P.E.I., said in a news release that Arsenault must appear before the legislative standing committee on natural resources immediately to explain what is going on with P.E.I.'s electrical system.
"Maritime Electric seems unable to keep up with the demand that we're having — to the point that they're telling Islanders they should not use appliances," Perry told CBC News.
"It's very scary, especially… this time of the year when it's really, really cold and some homes are heated by electricity — let's say heat pumps — and that's their primary source. They may not have a supplementary source."
Perry said the standing committee needs to know what the province is doing to guarantee reliable power, why Maritime Electric is increasing rates while "failing to keep the lights on," what oversight measures are in place, and what making the utility a Crown corporation would mean for customers.
Maritime Electric is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Fortis Inc.
'Held hostage'
Back in Summerside, the mayor said Maritime Electric's "monopoly" on power transmission in P.E.I. is a detriment when situations like this week's happen.
"It's frustrating when it's something that's outside of your control, when it's something you can't do that much about," Kutcher said.
"We are sort of held hostage to a certain degree by the restrictions on transmission, and I don't think that does anybody any good."
With files from Cody MacKay and Thinh Nguyen