Underwater hydro cables to Vancouver Island damaged or out of service

BC Hydro says it’s working to repair a damaged underwater cable that delivers power to Vancouver Island.

The utility says in a news release that its monitoring system detected a bulge and oil leak in one of its cables on July 8 that extends from the Sunshine Coast to Vancouver Island.

While the cause of the leak is being investigated, the cable has been taken out of service and repairs are underway.

Over the weekend, Hydro says it found two other bulging cables and as a result has reduced the power load on them to monitor their performance.

Hydro says it regularly monitors its infrastructure, and inspections of all its underwater cables were just finished in mid-June with no deficiencies found.

“BC Hydro is using its available generation capacity on Vancouver Island and independent power producers to meet customer demand,” reads a statement from BC Hydro. “It is also informing its largest industrial customers of this challenge in the event they need to reduce the load in the future.”

It says it’s investigating the possibility that the impact of the extreme heat wave in late June may be the cause of the damage.

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