Although a plan to institute two -hour blackouts on Tuesday night has been canceled, the mayor of Summerside says he is not happy with how his city of 17,000 people has been treated by Maritime Electric this week.
In an interview with CBC News on Tuesday night, Dan Kutcher said that the public services company that serves most of Prince Eduardo’s island, with the exception of Summerside, which has a municipal property company, told The city officials that would drastically reduce the amount of power that was going to allow in Summerside on Tuesday night.
They were told that the supply would fall from 28 megawatts to only two, said the mayor.
“Our teams are told that [Maritime Electric] The redirected power to Cavendish Farms, which would be 14 megawatts, to put them online again, “Kutcher said, speaking of the frozen food processor that is one of the largest companies on the island, 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 while their power sits and their homes become colder, “Kutcher said.
Mayor Dan Kutcher says that people in Summerside feel the pain of Maritime Electric failures after a variety of power cuts. He suggests that the utility is retaining the residents of the Western city of Pei as a hostage with their control over the province’s electric transmission system.
Summerside’s utility had planned a blackout of the filming on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, since the community continued to experience temperatures around –10 C, with the cold of the wind making it feel like –17.
But on Tuesday afternoon, after Kutcher spoke with CBC News, the city issued a statement by saying that maritime electricity officials had answered them to tell him that they would give Summerside enough power to spend the night.
“Maritime Electric has now guaranteed enough energy for tonight, which means that the interruptions of the rotation circuits will not be necessary tonight, and we will have enough energy to operate,” the statement said.
Substation still on repair
The earlier Tuesday, the city of Summerside said that blackouts would be needed following an interruption in west Pei at dawn on Monday.
Almost 19,000 customers in western PEI, including all Summerside, were left without energy for the second consecutive Monday. That led public services to urge customers to conserve energy and talk about the possibility of needing. CBC Mackay reports on the events of the day and the uncertainty of some islanders about the supply of energy in the province.
In the heyday of that incident, more than 19,000 clients in the western part of the island lost energy due to the damage to the maritime electricity substation north of Summerside.
The interruption closed the schools, caused dating cancellations in medical care centers and raised concerns for residents and companies.
The noon restored the energy, but the city warned that its energy usefulness could have to trigger rotating blackouts on Monday night, since maritime electrical equipment worked to repair the substation. That ended not being necessary, the city said in a social media post on Tuesday morning.
But hours later, an update of the media said that “due to continuous damage to the maritime substation of Sherbrooke Sherbrooke, we will turn off the circuits throughout the city to help administer energy loads.”
The statement said that the blackouts would be needed from 5 to 10 pm on Tuesday, with the energy of individual clients that remain out for approximately two hours before being restored.
The residents of the second largest community on Prince Eduardo is urged to be aware of energy by:
- turn off unnecessary lights;
- unplug electronics or appliances that are not being used;
- Do not use large appliances such as dishwasher, ovens or dryers; and
- Changing non -essential tasks such as clothes at the hours that are not peak.
Meanwhile, Maritime Electric continued to ask the islanders outside the Summerside area to take similar measures to preserve energy in an effort to reduce the demand for the province’s electrical system.
‘Interruptible client’
The city of Summerside generates much of its own electricity, but buys additional energy from New Brunswick Power, which sends it to PEI through an underwater cable system. The maritime electrical infrastructure should be used to move the electricity bought to the Summerside network.
Jason Roberts, president and CEO of Maritime Electric, said Summerside becomes an “interruptible client” in the case of the type of limitations in the PEI system that was experienced this week.
“They receive service from our … Transmission system. They take it contingently, so when the transformer left service, then they could not access our system as they normally do,” Roberts told CBC News
“We have the obligation to serve our clients in the first place, and that is what we are doing.”
As for the mayor who said that power deviated to Cavendish Farms, Roberts replied: “I cannot speak with any client in particular for privacy reasons, obviously. But we are committed to serving our clients as best we can.”
Roberts told CBC News that he didn’t expect more interruptions on Tuesday night. He said that peak times on Wednesday and Thursday could be a challenge because a fall in temperatures will encourage Prince Eduardo islanders to use more electricity to heat their homes.
He could not offer a timeline for repairs in the Sherbrooke substation, calling the “day by day” process.
Reacting to a warning that power could explode on Wednesday, the English and French school authorities advised parents with children in the schools in the Summerside area that provide them “lunches and snacks that do not require heating or kitchen” . However, the authorities said they do not anticipate having to delay classes or close schools.
‘It’s a lot of fear’
Meanwhile, the official opposition wants to listen to PEI’s Minister of Energy, Gilles Arsenault on the uncertainty surrounding the power network of the province.
Hal Perry, the interim leader of the PEI Liberal Party, said in a press release that Arsenault should appear before the Permanent Legislative Committee on natural resources immediately to explain what is happening with the PEI electrical system.
“Maritime Electric seems unable to keep up with the demand we are having, to the point that they tell the islanders that they should not use appliances,” Perry told CBC News.
“It’s a lot “
Perry said the Permanent Committee must know what the province is doing to guarantee reliable power, why Maritime Electric is increasing rates while “does not keep the lights on”, what supervision measures are in place and what to do about the company of medium public services for customers.
Maritime Electric is an indirect subsidiary of total property of Fortis Inc.
‘Host host’
Back in Summerside, the mayor said that Maritime Electric’s “monopoly” in PEI’s transmission is to detriment when situations like this week occur.
“It’s frustrating when it’s something that is out of your control, when it’s something you can’t do so much,” Kutcher said.
“We are hostage to some extent for transmission restrictions, and I don’t think that is good.”
