Revelstoke power outages planned for the early hours of Sunday, July 14 and Monday, July 15 became a drawn-out struggle of failed devices and extended outages, leading to resident frustration and prompting safety concerns.
Reports of outages lasting well through the night and into the morning were shared in Revelstoke community groups, with some commenting that they’d received notice of the planned Sunday outage in the evening, while others said late night notices left some in a lurch.
“The original outage was set for Sunday morning, midnight to 8 a.m.,” BC Hydro spokesperson Susan Edgell told Revelstoke Mountaineer. “However, there was a failed device in our infrastructure that caused us to cancel that outage, and instead hold the planned outage Monday morning, midnight to 6 a.m.”
The planned outage times were supposed to coincide with cooler temperatures in the region, a time when BC Hydro often schedules lengthy outages to update and repair equipment during spring and summer months. But added equipment failures on Monday led to a lengthy extension of the outage.
“Due to unplanned discoveries during the overnight outage from midnight to 6 a.m., we were unable to turn the power back on at 6 a.m. as planned. Our crews spent several hours…working at balancing the available power generation from Independent Power Producers and ourselves with the customer load, in order to bring all customers back online as soon as possible.”
Businesses and residents fought to keep up with the fluctuating power as equipment tests continued to fall short of necessary power levels. The Revelstoke Community & Aquatic Centre also reported power outages, closing one of the main cooling centres in Revelstoke throughout the day. City staff were unable to confirm whether the power outage was connected to the larger outages and planned work taking place or whether it was a separate incident. Other cooling centres around Revelstoke, including the Revelstoke Museum & Archives remained operational.
“BC Hydro would like to apologize to its customers for any inconvenience this outage may have caused,” Edgell said.
The next planned power outages for equipment updates are scheduled for Sunday, July 28 from 12 a.m. to 6 a.m. They are expected to impact an estimated 5,832 customers throughout Revelstoke, Albert Canyon, Beaton, Galena Bay, Halcyon, Rogers Pass, Shelter Bay, Trout Lake and sections of Highway 23 between Nakusp and Halcyon.
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