Summerside shuts down municipal facilities to avoid blackouts amid power struggle
Maritime Electric continues to ask Islanders to conserve energy during peak times
The City of Summerside is shutting down municipal facilities in an effort to avoid blackouts, says Mayor Dan Kutcher as he continues to voice frustrations with Maritime Electric's handling of the situation this week.
Kutcher told Island Morning on Wednesday that the city's solar farm has helped prevent blackouts during the day and its diesel generators have been running at full capacity, but still the city is taking additional steps.
"Yesterday, again, we shut down municipal facilities, so that means kids aren't going to their hockey practices. People aren't using the gym," he said Wednesday morning.
"We have to make really difficult decisions for our residents and also our businesses."
Kutcher had told CBC News on Tuesday that the utility that serves most of Prince Edward Island — with the exception of Summerside, which has a municipally owned power company — initially planned to cut the city's power supply from 28 megawatts to just two on Tuesday night, while reportedly directing 14 megawatts to Cavendish Farms.
The city, as a result, had been bracing for outages while repair work continued on a damaged Maritime Electric substation. A plan for two-hour rolling blackouts on Tuesday night was called off after Maritime Electric got back to city officials to say the utility would guarantee enough power to Summerside.
However, Kutcher told Island Morning on Wednesday that the next 24 to 48 hours would be challenging amid dropping temperatures — forecast to hit a low of -18C Wednesday night, which could feel as cold as -22C due to wind chill — and the city's utility would still have to implement rolling blackouts if there isn't enough transmittable power from Maritime Electric.
The city warned residents to prepare for possible two-hour blackouts and conserve power during peak hours of 6 to 10 a.m. and 6 to 10 p.m.
Maritime Electric said Wednesday morning it expected to have enough supply for all of P.E.I. through the night.
"Today's favourable wind forecast is contributing to the energy supply availability during peak times," the utility said in a statement. "We will be operating all our dispatchable on-Island generation through the day and evening to support our customers, as well as the City of Summerside."
The utility said it expected to provide a further update by Wednesday afternoon.
How it started
Wednesday marked the third day of electricity instability on Prince Edward Island after a widespread outage across western P.E.I. Monday left more than 19,000 customers without electricity due to damage at the Sherbrooke substation, north of Summerside. Power was restored by midday.
P.E.I.'s second-largest city generates much of its own electricity but also purchases additional energy from New Brunswick Power, which is transmitted to P.E.I. via an underwater cable system. However, Maritime Electric infrastructure is required to move the purchased electricity to Summerside's grid.
Due to the ongoing substation damage, Maritime Electric is asking Island residents to conserve energy in an effort to reduce demand on the provincewide electrical system by:
- Turning off unnecessary lights.
- Unplugging electronics or appliances that aren't being used.
- Not using large appliances like dishwashers, ovens or dryers.
- Shifting non-essential tasks like laundry to non-peak hours.
English and French school authorities have advised parents with children in Summerside-area schools to provide lunches and snacks that do not require heating or cooking. However, officials said they did not anticipate delays or school closures.
Challenging 'interruptible customer' designation
Maritime Electric CEO Jason Roberts told CBC News on Tuesday that Summerside is considered an "interruptible customer" and that the utility must prioritize its direct customers first. He did not confirm whether power had been diverted to Cavendish Farms.
Kutcher, however, said Summerside has argued for years they should not be an interruptible customer of Maritime Electric.
The city applied to the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission for permission to install its own transmission line, hoping to move power more cheaply. However, IRAC denied the application and this decision was subsequently upheld by the P.E.I. Supreme Court, Appeals Division in 2015.
"If we had access to those undersea cables directly, and we did not need to be an interruptible customer with Maritime Electric," the mayor said. "We'd be able to better support Maritime Electric by having some additional redundancy on the transmission system, and we wouldn't be in the situation we are here today."
He added that the underwater cable system should be a public asset serving the public good.
"We have to speak to and respond to the interests of our residents, and that means keeping our residents safe and warm. Maritime Electric, at the end of the day, [has a] primary duty to provide value for their shareholders."
With files from Island Morning