System maintenance work in the Nanaimo area will lead to power disruptions to over 1,500 Nanaimo-area BC Hydro customers over the next two weeks. (Image Credit: BC Hydro)

By Ian Holmes

power's out

Maintenance work zapping power to some Nanaimo-area BC Hydro customers

Mar 16, 2026 | 5:34 AM

NANAIMO — Scheduled maintenance work is shutting off the lights to a sizable number of Nanaimo-area BC Hydro customers.

A brisk run of ongoing system upgrades on the mid-Island is the source of the disruption, with about 700 customers impacted this week, and a further 850 expected next week, according to BC Hydro.

A link of the scheduled local outages are listed here. 

Ted Olynyk, BC Hydro’s manager of community relations for Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast, said upgrading or repairing their equipment is the main reason behind planned outages.

“It can be a pole change out where we need to replace the pole because the poles become end of life. We could be changing the transformer, it needs to be upgraded to meet new load requirements, or it’s at end of life as well,” Olynyk told NanaimoNewsNOW.

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New subdivisions can be another factor temporary power disruptions.

The Crown corporation expects the Nanaimo-area disruptions to range between brief hour-long maintenance projects, to as long as eight to nine hours.

Olynyk said they strategically analyze how to carry out this work to minimize customer inconvenience as much as possible.

“What customers are we going to be impacted? Does it work on that day to impact those customers in that community? Is a school going to be impacted? Can it be done on a Pro-D day?

While some maintenance work can be done “hot and live”, Olynyk said in most cases system-wide shutdowns need to be done in order for the work to be conducted safely.

“It can be just a couple people, or we can do whole communities. In some communities we have to take them out: Zeballos, Tahsis, sometimes to the west coast of the Island, to the north because of the nature of how they’re fed.”

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