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By Veronica Beltran

storm season

How BC Hydro responds to outages

Oct 20, 2020 | 6:00 AM

VANCOUVER–The fall and winter months mark the beginning of storm season in British Columbia, and storms mean power outages. Here’s how BC Hydro restores your power.

A release by BC Hydro is full of tips and information on how to stay safe during a storm that’s knocked out power and how they go about getting the lights back on to their customers.

First things first, stay back at least 10 metres from a fallen power line

• Always assume that a fallen power line is still alive, whether it is or isn’t sparking, smoking or buzzing.
• Stay back at least 10 metres, keep others in the area away and call 911.
• BC Hydro will work with emergency responders to make the area safe.

How does BC Hydro prioritize getting the lights back on?

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• Immediate dangers to health and safety come first.
• Then it’s about getting power back on for customers which oftentimes means repairing high-voltage transmission lines and substations. Transmission lines, unlike distribution lines in a neighbourhood, serve large numbers of customers.
• That’s followed by working with municipalities and emergency responders to get power back to critical services, such as hospitals, fire stations and municipal water systems.

Finding out what caused the outage

• BC Hydro says that they need to know what caused the problem and that is when the community comes into play. Customers who may have tips on what caused an outage are asked to call 1-888-POWERON on a corded landline or on mobile devices or text 49376.

Just cause you can’t see them doesn’t mean they’re not working on the problem

• “We often have customers tell us that they haven’t seen any trucks or crews in their area – but just because you can’t see them doesn’t mean that we’re not working on your problem,” reads a release by BC Hydro.
• Sometimes crews will arrive and then leave, BC Hydro says that is done because crews can’t determine the extent of the damage or repairs that are required until they arrive on site.

Sometimes power will go back out, but that’s only to try and get them back up and running

• “In some areas, we’re able to switch customers to another circuit temporarily to start providing power again while crews work,” says BC Hydro. Adding that in order to complete the process crews sometimes need to turn the lights back off in order to do their work.

BC Hydro adds that they do their best to try and prevent power outages and respond as quickly as they can when they do happen, but that customers should also be prepared.

Having an outage kit with flashlights, batteries, and emergency kit and bottled water can help British Columbians whether an unpredicted storm.