Island's power grid needed 'urgent' vegetation management, even before Fiona
CBC
Nearly three-quarters of Prince Edward Island's power lines were in urgent need of maintenance in late 2019 to protect them from nearby trees, according to documents Maritime Electric filed with the province's energy regulator.
Those same documents show only a fraction of the work necessary to secure those lines was carried out over the following three years, leaving the grid vulnerable when post-tropical storm Fiona struck in September 2022, taking out power to the whole province.
In a rate application Maritime Electric filed with the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission last June — three months before Fiona — the utility disclosed the results of a vegetation inspection conducted along its power lines in the aftermath of 2019's post-tropical storm Dorian.
That inspection showed 67,000 of Maritime Electric's transmission and distribution spans, representing 74 per cent of the company's overhead power lines, "require[d] urgent vegetation management to avoid a significant deterioration of reliability" in P.E.I.'s electrical grid.
A span represents the length of wire between two utility poles.
The company pegged the cost to address the issue at $54 million. While it increased its vegetation management budget in subsequent years, company records show just over $9 million had been spent by last September, when Fiona struck.
"More could have been done, for sure," said Simon Langlois-Bertrand, a researcher with the Trottier Energy Institute at Polytechnique Montréal.
"Fiona was a very large storm, and any risk and reliability issues were compounded by its impact. But could it have been made better by a more rapid preventive maintenance [schedule]? Yes, of course."
This week, a spokesperson with Maritime Electric told CBC News via email that the company is gradually increasing its budget for vegetation management to be able to complete the needed work within a time frameof seven to 10 years, and that this time frame fits within what the company meant as "urgent" in its report to IRAC.
Fiona initially took out power to all of P.E.I., and accounted for more than 13 million hours of customer interruption, according to Maritime Electric's post-mortem on the storm.
The average outage time per customer was 157 hours, or almost a week. In total, crews had to clear more than 40,000 trees that came down on power lines and transformers.
"Fiona caused extensive tree failure, which was the fundamental cause of damage to the electrical system," the company wrote in its post-mortem.
"There is a risk that future storms of this magnitude will cause similar or even more damage. The company recognizes the need to significantly increase vegetation management activities to reduce this risk."
But in an interview with CBC News, utility CEO Jason Roberts said the problem had less to do with trees within the company's right-of-way — trees which could have been identified as a potential risk during the 2019 inspection — and more to do with trees coming down outside areas under the company's jurisdiction.
Run 3 Space | Play Space Running Game
Traffic Jam 3D | Online Racing Game
Duck Hunt | Play Old Classic Game
A suspended Moncton structural engineer faces more lawsuits alleging design flaws in buildings that require repair.
Sajjade Tugano has come a long way since he first set foot in Chibougamau, six hours north of Quebec City, in the depths of winter in November 2021.
A national mentor-based hockey organization that helps marginalized youth through the sport is paying tribute to one of its members and youngest coaches.
After months of asking the City of Saskatoon to do more to solve its homelessness crisis, advocate David Fineday took to the stand at city council Tuesday.
A community organization wants to breathe new life into a historic building in Regina.
Some Prince County residents are walking away with more answers after attending Tuesday night's public information session in Albany, P.E.I., on the Wejipek Wind Project.
After just a few months of using vape detectors in a couple of bathrooms, a B.C. high school principal says it's reduced vape use in those areas to basically zero.
Burlington MP Karina Gould gets boost from local young people after entering Liberal leadership race
A day after entering the Liberal leadership race, Burlington, Ont., MP and government House leader Karina Gould was cheered at a campaign launch party by local residents — including young people expressing hope the 37-year-old politician will represent their voices.
Anold Mulaisho was born intersex and wonders where they fit in, in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump's executive order for the United States to recognize only two sexes, male and female.
WARNING: This story contains references to suicide.
Subway service is down on Line 1 between Sheppard West and Lawrence West due to a broken power rail, the TTC said Wednesday morning.
A long-term care home in Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood has cleared one more hurdle to add desperately needed beds to its property, a move that's been praised by housing advocates but opposed by locals concerned about the impact on the neighbourhood.
A Charlottetown resident is calling on the P.E.I. government to do more to protect homeowners after reading about a recent oil spill very similar to one on his Montague property 20 years ago, which he says ruined him financially.
WARNING: This story includes details of abuse.
Two years after Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly declared she was taking the unprecedented step of moving to confiscate millions of dollars from a sanctioned Russian oligarch with assets in Canada, the government has not actually begun the court process to forfeit the money, let alone to hand it over to Ukrainian reconstruction — and it may never happen.
Alberta business and oilpatch leaders are returning home from Washington this week after the U.S. presidential inauguration festivities — and gritting their teeth after a roller-coaster of emotions.
Youth workers in Toronto's Jane and Finch area are flipping the script on negative stereotypes about their communities with a new fundraising campaign that offers anti-bias training in exchange for donations to bolster their programming.
In a sudden move that came late Tuesday evening, city officials rolled out cots and temporarily opened a warm building in east London as frigid temperatures continued.