Hydro-Quebec on the West Island working to reduce power outages

Hydro-Quebec is working to improve service for customers on Montreal's West Island.

The work is among the five priorities of the Crown corporation's 2035 action plan. The goal of the plan is to reduce outages by 35 per cent, and Hydro-Quebec plans to do this using new technology in Dollard des Ormeaux (DDO).

Operation and maintenance director Samir Paraiso said the utility is investing up to $7.2 million to test its new innovations on the DDO network.

"It's one of the most highest outages, length or duration in the province. That's why we were starting here," Paraiso said.

The West Island was hit hard during the 2023 ice storm, and hundreds of thousands of people spent days with no power.

Over the year, Paraiso said, the line servicing DDO and Pierrefonds-Roxboro spent the most time in the dark.

"For 2023, the overall province has about 17 hours outages while this area had 110 hours outages," said Paraiso.

Crews are replacing 500 wood poles, and a majority of them will be composite poles made of fibreglass.

Hydro-Quebec says they are more robust and last longer.

Insulated conductors are also being installed.

"We have been implementing for 10 kilometres area, and this will prevent branches contact with the network from generating outages," said Paraiso.

DDO Mayor Alex Bottausci said Hydro-Quebec is replacing infrastructure that's been in place since the 1950s and 1960s.

"To cut to the chase, it's about time," he said. "And that's what I expressed to them about a year ago, where I pointed out to them that we had three particular key areas in Dollard where someone would sneeze and the power would go off."

Bottausci added that residents are already seeing a difference after around 200 poles have been replaced.

"There's some dividends that are being paid in the area because things are a lot more stable than they were even a few weeks back," he said.

Work in the area will be completed in 2025.

After that, Hydro-Quebec said it would be moving on to other areas on the West Island.