A massive power outage left much of New West without power for about an hour this morning.
Rod Carle, the general manager of the New Westminster Utility Commission, said an issue in the substation at Ovens and Colborne streets knocked out power to two-thirds of the city at around 8 a.m. on Thursday, March 30. By 9:15 a.m., he said BC Hydro had restored power throughout the city.
“I think I saw the first call around eight o'clock,” Carle told the Record. “The majority of everything was back up within probably 40 minutes.” Everybody reacted really quick.”
Power to homes and residences in neighbourhoods across the city was knocked out. Traffic backed up in some parts of the city because four-way stop procedures were in effect after traffic lights went out.
The City of New Westminster took to social media to report the outage.
Carle could not say the number of customers impacted by the outage, but said the incident impacted two-thirds of the city.
The cause of the power outage hasn’t yet been determined.
“There's just some work being done at the substation,” Carle said. “We don't we don't have all the details yet, but there was nine circuits that were dropped.”
BC Hydro has been doing maintenance and replacing equipment like circuit breakers in the substation, which it operates and maintains, Carle said.
“Hydro has crews working in there,” he said. “And obviously something happened.”
Carle said BC Hyrdo will be reporting back to the city about the cause of the power outage, which originated in the substation.
“I’m not sure if that is what the issue is but we are expecting to get some more information from them,” he said.
Amory Wong, a senior communications consultant, public affairs with Fraser Health, said the power outage in New Westminster affected the Royal Columbian Hospital. Power said power went out at 8:01 a.m. and was restored about an hour later and the hospital returned to normal operations.
“All emergency protocols were followed, including the use of the hospital generator to provide full backup power. No patients were adversely affected,” Wong said. “Thank you to our staff and medical staff for managing this situation and ensuring the safety of our patients.”
