Montreal City Weblog

Kate 09:57 on 2024-06-05 Permalink Reply  

• Meezly 11:44 on 2024-06-05 Permalink

  Living in a sector that experiences occasional yet regular enough power outages, I was curious to see how Montrea/Quebec compares with other cities/provinces and even though I couldn’t find any archives, I did find this site: https://poweroutage.com/ca/

  Quebec currently has 3X the number of power outages compared to the more populous Ontario. According to this 2022 article, it has to do with our aging infrastructure which I assume will be an ongoing project for HydroQC for some decades to come.

• Joey 16:14 on 2024-06-05 Permalink

  I think you would need to control for the kind of unique mix of very crappy weather we get here in Quebec…

• thomas 16:34 on 2024-06-05 Permalink

  The NYTimes has a recent article, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/03/business/energy-environment/canada-hydropower-electric-grids.html, detailing how dryer and warmer weather has forced Hydro-Québec to import more power from the United States in recent months. Hydro-Quebec optimistically argues that this weather is cyclical and not a new normal.

• Kate 16:37 on 2024-06-05 Permalink

  Thank you, thomas. I haven’t seen that reported anywhere else.

• PatrickC 18:03 on 2024-06-05 Permalink

  This is quite a change from the days when Quebec was counting on Hydro to enjoy a huge revenue stream from exported electricity.

• EmilyG 18:20 on 2024-06-05 Permalink

  Yeah, I experienced the outage. I tried to go to Hydro-Quebec’s page on details about my area (on my phone,) and the page was experiencing technical difficulties. Not very useful.

• Ian 18:23 on 2024-06-05 Permalink

  Well that’s what happens when you overpromise on contracts – if there’s a shortfall, it’s on you.

  – –

  The clean-energy source is an important pillar for Canada’s largest province. Hydro-Quebec accounted for about five per cent of government-generated revenues last year, contributing $6 billion to provincial coffers.

  The push to link it to economic growth became a wedge between Legault’s government and Hydro-Quebec’s last chief executive officer, Sophie Brochu, who balked at moves to turn the power provider into what she called the “dollar store” of electricity. Brochu departed this month, leaving an acting chief executive in place until a successor is appointed. The next head will be tasked with solving a looming shortfall while navigating the turbulent waters of Quebec politics that dogged Brochu.

  Article content
  Hydro-Quebec’s future power commitments include long-term contracts to deliver an additional 20 terawatt-hours each year to the densely populated U.S. northeast when the Champlain Hudson Power Express and another project, the New England Clean Energy Connect, get built.

  The export deals were a “strategic mistake,” said Jocelyn Allard, head of a Quebec lobbying group that represents industrial electricity consumers including Glencore PLC and Rio Tinto PLC. Those contracts and a lack of added capacity could cause Hydro-Quebec to struggle to meet future demand, deterring new customers. “It doesn’t help companies to build business cases for projects.”

  https://financialpost.com/commodities/energy/renewables/quebec-faces-power-shortfall-hydro-electricity-exports

• maggie rose 19:59 on 2024-06-05 Permalink

  thomas – do you or anyone else know where I can read the NYT article, which is behind a paywall. Even with their 7 days free offer for limited articles, they still won’t let me through.

• thomas 22:13 on 2024-06-05 Permalink

  maggie rose, does this link work for you? https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/03/business/energy-environment/canada-hydropower-electric-grids.html?unlocked_article_code=1.xk0.d8db.Bla1z16HtOBr&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

• dhomas 04:02 on 2024-06-06 Permalink

  @maggie rose: if you use an adblocker (ex: uBlock Origin), you can add this file to your block list and it will remove most paywalls:
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/liamengland1/miscfilters/master/antipaywall.txt

  The site works for me with this block list, but does not work if I turn off my adblocker.

• maggie rose 05:18 on 2024-06-06 Permalink

  Yes, thank you thomas.

• Ian 08:18 on 2024-06-06 Permalink

  Yes, thank you – and thank you dhomas as well, I use ublock origin so that’s perfect.

• Tim S. 11:21 on 2024-06-06 Permalink

  Thanks thomas, very interesting.

• Ian 12:12 on 2024-06-06 Permalink

  So overall it sounds like a mix of not enough snow/ climate change/ bad CAQ business decisions.