Get Ready for Lights Out
The first outage, set to start at 7 a.m. Monday the 18th, will impact a dozen residences on St. Mark Crescent (street address #’s 7682-7712, 7721 ) and will last up to 12 hours.
BC Hydro will then move through that neighbourhood and parts of College Heights through to the 28th of this month. In each case, the outage is expected to start at 7 am and last until 7 pm. says BC Hydro spokesperson Bob Gammer “What we have is a change out of low profile transformers, these are the short stubby transformers you see in a lot of people’s front yards near the road. We are changing out 108 of them, starting on Monday the 18th and going through to the 29th, and then I think there may be another project later in the fall”. He says some of the transformers are at the end of their lives, and some are being upgraded from handling 12 thousand volts to 25 thousand volts in preparation for BC Hydro’s conversion to 25 thousand volt lines.
But the one planned outage which will have the biggest impact, comes in the wee hours of July 24th.
From 3 a.m. to 10 a.m. on the 24th, about 9 thousand customers in the north end of the City will be without power as BC Hydro replaces a pole. “We are replacing a pole structure in an area that is prone to erosion” says Gammer “This is a transmission line that runs west of Foothills Boulevard up past the Foothills Landfill site to the Chief Lake sub station. This is why we have to take the sub station out , the line that feeds the substation is the one we are working on .”
With the exception of those who live on North Nechako Road, the July 24th outage will impact everyone in areas along Highway 97 north of the Nechako River to Salmon Valley including Hart Highlands, Chief Lake, Nukko Lake, Ness Lake, Salmon Valley and Shady Valley .
This major outage was supposed to have taken place on July 10th, but Gammer says the weather just didn’t cooperate “We had to reschedule because of all this rain. It was just making the work area potentially unsafe.”
There are things residents can do to prepare for an outage says Gammer “Get any kind of work you need to get done ahead of time. A lot of these are on different days, so we have outages ranging from the 18th through to the 28th depending on where you live, so we would really encourage people to check the BC Hydro website.”
He says you should leave one light on outside the house so crews know power has been restored to your home, and one light on inside for yourself. Gammer says while some may want to unplug certain items, that’s a personal call, but says there is no need to worry about your fridge or freezer “Keep your deep freeze closed if you can, and keep it closed for the whole day. The contents of your freezer are not going to defrost in a 12 hour period especially if you keep it closed.”
Comments
Really???? 12 hour periods???
Whoever put thumbs down must be living outside those areas. Your turn will be next, even if you live out of town.
When designing a system, upgrade procedures should be considered.
12 hours with the fridge/freezer out … there goes the ice cream.
Yep you tell them how to do the job, just march down there. You must be affected. Going to miss that convenience of just flipping a switch for power when ever. Did you know there are more than 2 billion people with no power at all.
If they considered ALL the things you think they should consider nobody would’ve ever HAD power. Good thing people who think the way you seem to weren’t around when the country was first being settled ~ we’d probably still be studying the possible negative effects of Red River wagon ruts on prairie dog habitat! Inconclusively, no doubt, so everything’s on hold until we can do another study. God save us from those that think THEY can plan the Earth!
12 hours when most people are getting up to go to work till they come home from work and can’t cook supper.
How about some free breakfast and dinner coupons to each house affected?
No TV, no internet access for those staying at home. During the summer when kids are home from school.
Who is the genius who could not find a better time, such as overnight (I realize not everyone is on similar schedules) to do this and a better way to do it?
Where would overnight make much of a difference? So sad one cannot do with out for one day.
my only real concern would be my fridge and deep freeze.
I guess if you keep them closed they should be , hopefully , okay.
if the outages are what they say they will be I guess one could work out some sort of plan for eating and kids….
picnic in south fort george park?
12 Hours seems a bit excessive. I am sure they have there reasons but you would think that they could do it in stages. Lucky some of us have a generator for just such occasions.. Freezer still works and the aquarium will still have aeration for the fish.
“We are replacing a pole structure in an area that is prone to erosion”
And they could not determine that before the pole was put there in the first place? What kind of geotechnical assessment do they do before they install transmission lines?
You do know that geography changes over time. That line has been there for over thirty years I believe. Hey how come the roads washout, landslides take out infrastructure, well you get my drift, all bad planning I guess.
“The first outage, set to start at 7 a.m. Monday the 18th, will impact a dozen residences on St. Mark Crescent”
Why are they not bringing in truck mounted temporary power diesel generators?
Gee just think of all particulate pollution, c02 being released by those generators! Would be an environmental disaster. Besides time consuming to hook up individual houses.
Seems to be someone from BCHydro clicking thumbs down without explanation.
Perhaps the “thumbs down” are coming from people that aren’t addicted to Google searches and can go without internet for 12 hours without getting the shakes, haha! ;-)
The one thing you can always count on is you can’t count on the grid to be there up and running . Buy some backup . You’ll never regret not losing your fridge full of food . You’ll never regret having all your electronics up and running . On a brighter note the comment section at 250 should be a little less rightie for twelve hours . Or perhaps a lot less rightie .
So you’ll have this site all to yourself for a few hours! You’ll be able to spout off with all of your usual nonsense without anyone calling you out on it!
Having this site all to yourself will allow you lots and lots of time to finally respond to the numerous requests sent your way for proof of manmade global warming! Or NOT!
Please tell us about your backup.
Oh by the way I do have backup, a gas generator with reserve fuel supply.
Old crow Yukon next to go solar . Story at whitehorsestar.com .
Hum, will only supply 17% of their power and that is only when the sun is shining. Must be a large battery bank to supply the long winter nights then a combination of bad weather. Then there is power needed to recharge the batteries taking away from output. Oh wait they have diesel power.
So now there are two power systems where there used to be only one to maintain.
The picture of the ATCO CEO tells the story all by itself . He looks like a guy who has seen the first 17% slice of disruption , first hand . I wonder if crusty gives a poop about the people of Lower Post , BC who are also in the grip of this Edmonton diesel burner corperation . I’m hoping the Kochs are major share holders . T.aco.x for the curious .
Oh Gawd, such an Inconvenience, What are we gonna do.
Progress waits for no man. LMAO!
The City is shutting off our water & sewer from 7:00am to 7:00pm tomorrow. At least they hope it is for only 12 hours, but it could be longer.
Wow…what would happen to you people if we really did have a major power outage…city folk do make us country folk giggle about things like this…In the past we have had power outages that were days long and everyone got by just fine…amazes me how people live their lives tied to all the modern conveniences and if one isn’t there for a bit it messes their life’s up…Oh well..everyone needs something to complain about I guess…
Camping trailer batteries charged up, generator gas tank and propane tanks full and ready to go, propane fridge working just fine (beer is cold), barbeque ready in an instant and it won’t take more than 5 or 10 minutes to fill the water tank and turn on the water heater!
Power outage? Camping in the driveway! Bring it on!
Taktak and Hart guy are positive people, my kind of people!
On the subject of power outages yes, but watch how fast Hart Guy turns negative when there is a story on Trudeau, or teachers, or unions, or First Nations, or…?
Heck the news stories don’t even have to be about Trudeau but Hart Guy will use it as an opportunity to spout his negatives all over the discussion board.
Myself, there is a provincial election coming so of course I will research and present all the faults, scandals, gates, etc. of the Christy Clark Gov. because people need to know the facts. I look at what I do as a public service, ensuring voters are more informed when they do vote. :-D
JGalt, haha, you’re so funny!
So, let me get this straight, you will research and present all the faults, scandals, gates(?), etc. of the Christy Clark Gov. because people need to know the facts? You suggest that what you do is a public service haha?
Ok, so during the Harper/Conservative years, you lefties got to whine, bitch and complain about the Government of the day and now that we have a new Government, one that you lefties approve of, you don’t think that those of us on the “right” side of the political spectrum get to have our chance to whine, bitch, complain and point out the faults and F-ups about the idiot that you lefties helped elect?
Doesn’t sound fair to me! Especially when there is so much to laugh at Justin about, something different practically every new day, haha!
Obviously you are one of those bleeding heart lefties who believes that everybody has a right to their opinion, EXCEPT when said opinion differs from the opinion of your lefties, haha!
So, now that I’ve obviously been negative, I’d like to send positive thoughts your way for a wonderful sunny and warm day tomorrow!
Sounds like a paaaarty. Will there be Hart girls there ?
Now that’s a very positive thought!
What do you think JGalt, positive or negative?
So many whiners….
Sure, for most people a twelve-hour outage won’t be the end of the world, but think about some people on home oxygen, who now have to make sure they have enough oxygen tanks to cover that time period.
Or if it is a hot day, someone not being able to put a fan on so they don’t suffer from heat stroke.
Melted ice cream or spoiled food is such a non-issue compared to the well-being of a person.
I’m not sure mama t and I could be wrong but I believe that with power outages like this, BC Hydro will provide generators to those that require home oxygen and would suffer undue hardship etc. due to a prolonged power outage!
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