Skip to content

Cause unknown in power outage that left a good chunk of New West in the dark

It’s possible the cause of a power outage that left many New West neighbourhoods without power on Saturday morning may have been vaporized. Rod Carle, general manager of the city’s electrical utility, said the outage occurred about 7:30 a.m.
Electrical utility power outage BC Hydro
Crews search for the cause of a power outage at the electrical substation on Saturday morning, which left about two-thirds of the city without power for a couple of hours. While power outages aren't normally common in New West, there have been four in various parts of the city in the past month-and-a-half.

It’s possible the cause of a power outage that left many New West neighbourhoods without power on Saturday morning may have been vaporized.

Rod Carle, general manager of the city’s electrical utility, said the outage occurred about 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, July 13 and knocked out power in much of New Westminster for a couple of hours. Royal Columbian Hospital was also impacted and used its emergency generators during the outage.

“I am going to say it was two-thirds of the city,” he said. “It was our substation at Ovens and Colborne, right by the city’s yards office. It covered at least two-thirds of the city. We are currently feeding Queensborough out of that substation now too. So, all of Queensborough, and pretty well everything outside of the downtown area.”

Crews from BC Hydro and the City of New Westminster both responded to the power outage and tried to find the cause of the outage, which shut down the entire substation.

According to Carle, an “intense” fault was discovered outside in the yard, but the cause of that hasn’t been determined.

“They go through a series of processes and alarm checks to see if they can actually identify the real cause. Even as of yesterday they still weren’t sure what it was,” he told the Record Wednesday morning. “A lot of times we will get a single feeder or whatever, and it could be a bird or a raccoon or whatever, but usually we end up finding the cause at the bottom of the poles or the structure. In this case they said the fault was so huge if there was some type of a critter it would just vaporize.”

Once crews confirmed it was safe to turn the power back on, they turned on the 16 feeders that provide the city with power – one by one.

In his 14 years with the city, Carle said he’s never seen this type of scenario occur at the substation.

The July 13 incident was the third power outage in New Westminster in the past month-and-a-half.

While power was soon restored to many properties following a May 29 power outage in the Glenbrook North and Queen’s Park neighbourhoods, some residences and businesses around Sixth and McBride were without power for nearly 24 hours. The cause was determined to be a burnt underground cable, which crews had to locate and then repair.

Following a June 27 power outage in the 700 and 800 blocks of Carnarvon Street, city crews found three blown fuses in an unground vault. Once those were replaced, power was restored.

Some Massey-Victory Heights residents who were impacted by Saturday’s power outage were alarmed when their power went out again on Monday night. That outage occurred after a vehicle crashed into a power pole.

In response to May’s power outage, city staff reviewed communications protocols for electrical outages, after receiving complaints about a lack of communication to residents about when power would be restored. Now, as soon as power outage occurs, electrical staff contact the city’s communications staff, who post information in the city’s social media channels.

Saturday’s power outage has resulted in new concerns from residents, who have recommended the city include a phone number on electrical bills that people can call when there is a power outage, and have expressed concern about seniors’ inability to access elevators in their condos when the power is out and suggested they need to be provided with information about what to do. Carle is meeting with staff in the finance and communications departments to discuss these concerns.

After the recent run of power outages, Carle hopes the city has seen the end of these types of incidents for a while.

“We certainly appreciate all the comments we have received,” he said. “Realistically, if there is a power outage, it is going to take at least an hour to even get and find out what the problem is. From there, we may get lucky and if we can do it through a control centre we can get the power back on right away. If it has to do with underground cables and stuff like that, it’s going to be two to three hours. Don’t panic.”