Côte-St-Luc Power Outage: 15,000 Households Affected by Transformer Failure
A significant power outage in Côte-St-Luc has left approximately 15,000 households without electricity over the weekend, with the situation still not fully resolved as of Tuesday. The disruption began with a critical transformer malfunction at the Hampstead electrical substation, which supplies power to thousands of homes in the area.
Transformer Malfunction Sparks Widespread Blackout
The outage originated on Saturday during a severe cold snap when one of the four transformers at the Hampstead substation failed. The malfunction caused petroleum product to spill onto the other three transformers, necessitating thorough cleaning to prevent further failures. According to Hydro-Québec, all transformers were already operating at maximum capacity, leaving no backup to handle the increased demand during what was the coldest weekend of the year.
In its Tuesday update, the city of Côte-St-Luc emphasized that cleaning the affected transformers was a critical first step in the restoration process. The incident has raised concerns about the municipality's power grid reliability, especially during extreme weather conditions.
Ongoing Repairs and Additional Failures
Since the initial outage, 19 distribution transformers crucial to Côte-St-Luc's power grid have failed and required replacement. Hydro-Québec reports that repairing or replacing these pole-mounted transformers takes approximately seven hours each. As each transformer is replaced, power is gradually restored to surrounding areas, but new failures have continued to occur, with the latest reported on Tuesday morning.
To supplement the power supply, Hydro-Québec has installed 11 generators at the Hampstead substation, with more expected to arrive. The city has urged residents to reduce electricity consumption as much as possible while technicians work to stabilize the system.
Planned Outages and System Overhaul
The city announced a planned six-hour blackout for Wednesday affecting over 900 hydro customers in Côte-St-Luc and Notre-Dame-de-Grâce areas. This comes as Hydro-Québec project documents reveal that Côte-St-Luc's power transmission system has needed updating for years.
Plans from 2023 show intentions to build a new substation at the Hampstead site, a project that had been in development since before the pandemic. Additionally, Hydro-Québec had scheduled reconfiguration of Côte-St-Luc's overhead transmission system from January to June 2026 to meet growing demand in Montreal's west end, with promises of no service interruptions during the work.
The extended outage has caused significant inconvenience for residents, with some reporting indoor temperatures dropping to as low as 2°C in affected homes. As repair efforts continue, questions remain about the aging infrastructure's ability to handle future demands.
