Hydro-Québec Announces Planned Power Interruption for Côte-St-Luc Residents
Hydro-Québec has confirmed it will temporarily cut electricity service to approximately 1,200 customers in the Côte-St-Luc area on Monday. This planned interruption, expected to last about eight hours, comes as the utility continues upgrading its distribution network following a major blackout earlier this week.
Details of the Scheduled Service Disruption
Spokesperson Pascal Poinlane stated on Thursday that the exact timing of Monday's outage has not yet been determined, nor have specific streets been identified. Affected customers will receive individual notification via automated phone calls before the service interruption begins.
"Clients who will be affected will be contacted individually via a robocall," Poinlane explained, emphasizing Hydro-Québec's commitment to advance notification.
Additional Planned Outages and Network Upgrades
Before Monday's main interruption, several smaller outages are scheduled, each lasting approximately two hours and affecting dozens of customers at a time. These preliminary disruptions will also be communicated to affected residents in advance.
The primary purpose of Monday's extended outage is to increase the voltage capacity of a distribution line from 12 to 25 kilovolts, representing a significant upgrade to the local electrical infrastructure.
Recent Power Issues and Ongoing Recovery Efforts
This planned work follows several recent power disruptions in the Montreal area:
- On Wednesday, approximately 900 clients in western Notre-Dame-de-Grâce experienced a several-hour outage during similar upgrade work on a different distribution line
- Over the weekend, an equipment failure at the Hampstead substation left about 15,000 customers in Côte-St-Luc, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, and Montreal West without power
Poinlane noted that Wednesday's upgrade work proceeded smoothly and that crews are currently replacing a transformer at the Hampstead substation as part of ongoing recovery efforts from the weekend outage.
Context and Utility Response
These planned interruptions represent Hydro-Québec's proactive approach to infrastructure improvement following recent service disruptions. The utility is balancing necessary upgrades with minimizing customer inconvenience through advance notification and strategic scheduling.
The voltage increase planned for Monday represents a substantial enhancement to the distribution system's capacity and reliability in the Côte-St-Luc area, potentially reducing future outage risks once completed.
