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Upgrades to a BC Hydro substation left 19,700 customers in Campbell River and Quadra Island to be without power Thursday morning.
Crews were trying an alternate circuit configuration at the Campbell River substation when a circuit failure caused the outage, around 8:20 a.m.
Some residents reported their power was turning on and off during the outage. BC Hydro says that this was due to crews working to restore power.
Power was eventually held and restored at 9:10 a.m. once crews returned the circuits to their original configuration.
“There was actually a fault on one of the circuits, and the alternate configuration was likely more sensitive, which resulted in all the circuits being tripped out,” Said Karla Louwers, a spokesperson for BC Hydro.
Louwers adds that the circuits were returned to normal, and will remain in that configuration until further investigation. Local electricians will determine why the alternate configuration caused the outage.
“These things should not happen but sometimes they do… unfortunately the outage had a large impact in regards to the customers… we appreciate everyone’s patience,” Louwers said.
Julian Kolsut
