A power outage impacting close to 15 000 homes has many seniors concerned

By Tommy Osborne

Power Outage

Upcoming huge power outage has seniors concerned

Mar 25, 2025 | 3:48 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Close to 15,000 BC Hydro customers will be without power on March 30, as a planned power outage for scheduled maintenance will impact a large portion of Prince George and surrounding areas.

“For the transmission infrastructure replacement project, that’s just under 15,000 customers. But what when we know we have an outage coming, we try to get as much work done in other parts of our system as we can to reduce the need for a second outage at a later date. So we’re also doing some distribution pole replacements, along those lines and that will impact an additional 2000 customers,” said BC Hydro Community Relations Manager Mike Kellett, when explaining the work that is scheduled.

While a power outage impacting so many people has some concerned about problems like food in the fridge, or even more minor things like losing amenities like TV and the internet, the Prince George Council of Seniors (PGCOS) says there are some much bigger concerns for the senior population.

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“One of them is it’s going to affect their access to digital services, and the second one is the transportation. For example, where there is an elevator, you cannot actually use the elevator, and a lot of seniors will have challenges walking up and down the stairs,” said the PGCOS Executive Director Malhar Kendurkar.

“If something happens, there is no way for the senior to actually get the help right away that they actually need,” he continued, discussing both physical challenges of no elevators and the challenges of accessing help digitally.

Heat is another potential concern, and while the forecast predicts a relatively warm Sunday, it does call for a low of -4°C, which could potentially dip lower once the sun goes down. Kendurkar says this could cause problems beyond basic comfort, as some seniors could be more prone to cold-related health concerns.

“Sometimes they have arthritis and that could potentially give them more but more pain with the colder temperatures, and not all seniors have extra pairs of blankets or extra pair of sweaters due to financial hardship,” Kendurkar said.

Kellett says he completely understands the concerns raised by seniors, but this planned outage needs to happen to prevent further issues down the line.

“If this infrastructure were to fail suddenly and without warning, it could very likely cause sudden outages. It could last much longer for customers because we wouldn’t have the crews and the equipment and all the resources in place to bring things back online in an orderly fashion,” Kellett said.

You can learn more about what specific areas will be impacted by the outage on BC Hydro’s website here.

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