While meeting with the MRC Pontiac Council of Mayors on March 10, Hydro Québec revealed a study showing a slight improvement in service pertaining to power outages from 2019 to 2020.

According to community relations advisor Alain Paquette, “customers in the MRC experienced 26.3 hours of service interruptions in 2020, compared to 33.7 in 2019.”

A Hydro Québec press release stated that . . .

the outages caused in 2020 were in part due to notable weather events, including heavy snowfall and high winds on Feb. 27, high winds on June 11 and Aug. 11, with accompanying thunderstorms on the latter date and a windstorm on Nov. 2. However, those four events only accounted for 182 minutes of outage time, or three hours, according to Paquette.

Paquette said that vegetation control is a key aspect of reducing service interruptions.

Falling branches have caused an average of 62 per cent of disruptions in power over the past several years, and the public utility’s goal is to reduce vegetation-caused outages by 25 per cent by 2025.

“In 2021, we plan to fell more than 6,000 hazardous trees that are problematic in terms of vegetation-related outages due to their proximity to power lines,” he said in the press release.

“These [affected] lines supply the municipalities of Thorne, Otter Lake, Clarendon, Bristol, Alleyn et Cawood, Shawville, Waltham, Sheenboro, L’Isle aux Allumettes and Chichester.”

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