Thursday June 25, 2020 ~ SAANICH, BC
by Mary Brooke, editor ~ West Shore Voice News
A BC Hydro substation fault resulted in 15,111 BC Hydro customers being without power in Saanich and View Royal starting around 5:08 pm.
With about 2.2 persons per household, that’s probably over 33,000 people impacted. There are also businesses and Camosun College in the area.
It’s been a warm sunny afternoon with bright blue skies, so the event is not related to issues of inclement weather.
Substation failures are just part of the ongoing work of an electric utility. “They can happen at any time,” says Ted Olynyk, BC Hydro community relations rep for Vancouver Island-Sunshine Coast.
The cause can sometimes be an animal inside the substation or some sort of equipment failure, says Olynyk.
This incident happened at the Goward Substation which is located near the Camosun College campus on Interurban Road.
BC Hydro invests in upgrades to older substations. Facilities like substations are getting older, while the demand for power is going up at about 2 percent per year. One service goal is for better reliability and more control to shift electrical load (customers) to the larger station in the event of a problem.
During COVID-19 there has generally been higher energy usages or shifts in power load usage patterns, with more people staying home and working from home with schedules that differ from the standard 9 to 5 weekday loads.
Today about half the customers had their power back around 5:30 pm, says Olynyk. Everyone had power back by 6 pm.