By The Canadian Press

BC Hydro report says climate change events cause worse storms, more outages

Nov 16, 2018 | 9:59 AM

VANCOUVER — A report from BC Hydro says despite soaring numbers of powerful storms or wildfires that cause power outages, the Crown utility is still managing to respond quickly to trouble spots through the use of new technology.

The report looked at the effects of increasingly severe weather systems which Hydro blames on climate change.

It shows the number of storms requiring a response from repair crews has tripled since 2013, while the number of customers affected by an outage has jumped from 323,000 in 2013 to nearly 1.2 million last year.

The utility says its smart meter network, which provides constant feedback on a customer’s electricity use, helps crews quickly respond to outages.

It says other advances in weather-forecasting models aid in more accurately predicting and tracking storms.

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Chris O’Riley, Hydro’s chief operating officer, says in a release that despite higher numbers of storms and fires, the use of new technology and processes is allowing crews to restore power almost as quickly as they did when such events were less intense.

The Canadian Press