Upper Pontiac Hydro Outage yearly report: Best year since 2009

Upper Pontiac Hydro Outage yearly report: Best year since 2009

In the municipality of L’Isle-aux-Allumettes, David Gillespie, a local farmer, has been keeping detailed statistics on the number of Hydro Quebec power outage for over 14 years (since 2009). In his yearly update to CHIP 101.9, Gillespie revealed that the number of power outage for 2022 went down once again to 32 power outages, as compared to 47 in 2020 and 37 recorded outages in 2021.

This number is down significantly from 2019, which saw 103 power outages. 

Gillespie says seeing another year where the number of power outages has gone down again is very encouraging for the region.

In summary, 2022 averaged between 2 and 4 power outages per month with the only exceptions being March which saw zero outages, January, February and December which had one recorded power outage each, and the month of May with eight outages, one of which lasted three days.

However, it should be noted that Quebec was hit by major storms that month (21-23 of May), begining with it major and lengthy power outages across the province. According to Gillespie, the three-day outage had a serious effect on the average time-per-outage. The total number of minutes without power in the upper Pontiac last year was 3, 985 minutes (or 66.5 hours), the highest recorded number since 2016 (4, 030 minutes, or 67.1 hours).

The last three years in the Pontiac has certainly given Gillespie a “cautionary optimism” when considering the Hydro Quebec service, however he says his work collecting data on the yearly power outages in L’Isle-aux-Allumettes will not be done until he observes an overall average one outage per month.

Find the the full yearly update on the power outages in L’Isle-aux-Allumettes here.

The full interview with David Gillespie is available here.