(Montreal) Hydro-Québec is maintaining its goal of restoring power to 95% of its customers plunged into darkness since Wednesday’s ice storm by Sunday evening.
Some subscribers will however have to wait until Tuesday due to complex cases to be settled, said in a press briefing on Sunday morning the director of Energy System Control at Hydro-Québec, Maxime Nadeau.
By 11:15 a.m. Sunday, there were approximately 110,000 state-owned utility customers still without power, meaning nearly 90% of the 1.1 million homes that lost access to heating and in the light this week have already been reconnected.
The Montreal area remained the hardest hit, with 77,000 customers without power Sunday morning, but the situation had improved significantly from the previous day. Saturday morning, around the same time, the report showed nearly 190,000 customers without heating or electricity in Montreal.
The other regions still affected by outages on Sunday morning were Outaouais (13,000), Montérégie (13,000), Laval (6,000) and Laurentides (1,000).
About 1,500 Hydro-Quebec employees, 40% of whom are in Montreal, are working on the ground to reconnect subscribers, said the vice-president, operations and maintenance, at Hydro-Quebec, Régis Tellier, during a press briefing. Sunday morning.
In order to offer respite to people who regained power on Saturday evening, and to those who will be reconnected in the coming hours, the government has announced that food markets will be able to remain open in these regions on Sunday, despite Easter Day. . This will also be the case in Lanaudière, where the number of breakdowns was high on Saturday.
In the meantime, the government recalled on Saturday that more than 100 emergency centers have opened their doors in the most affected regions, in order to allow people for whom the blackout is prolonged to go to warm up, eat and recharge their batteries. electronic appliances.
