UPDATED: Power restored after outages in Greater Victoria, Cowichan Valley

UPDATED: Power restored after outages in Greater Victoria, Cowichan Valley
BC Hydro
Thousands are affected on Vancouver Island Saturday morning.

Power has now been restored after outages left thousands without power Saturday morning in multiple regions on Vancouver Island.

The outages left more than 120,000 customers on Vancouver Island without power, according to BC Hydro. The outage was not connected to weather or a wildfire near Ladysmith, maintenance being done on a transmission line caused overload protection equipment to activate and caused the outage, according to BC Hydro Vancouver Island manager of communications Ted Olynyk.

“We had some crews doing work on a transmission line that feeds Vancouver Island and some protection overload equipment initiated when they were doing the work which caused this large system outage,” said Olynyk. “Fortunately, there was no damage to the system or anything like that and we were able to restore power very quickly to our customers.”

According to the BC Hydro’s outage map, 244 areas in Greater Victoria were without power along with six in the Cowichan Valley, three in Lake Cowichan and six in Port Alberni. The map showed the power has been out since around 9:50 a.m. in the various areas.

Olynyk said power was able to be restored to the various areas in around 30 minutes. However, with maintenance being done to the transmission line, which gave BC Hydro problems last month, there is a possibility of another power outage.

“Of course you can never say never to any outage for any reason so we always remind our customers to always be prepared in case there is an outage,” Olynyk said. “Could be equipment issues, system issues and it could be a Mother Nature initiated event.”

Olynyk said, however, another outage like this one is unlikely.

“Events like this, it’s the first time it’s ever happened on my watch on Vancouver Island in 20 years,” he said. “Events like this are very rare.”

A link to see all power outages can be found here.


READ MORE: Sudden storm hits central Vancouver Island causing flash floods, downed trees, power outages

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Justin WaddellJustin Waddell

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