Citywide power outage in Summerside traced back to earlier wind and rain storm

Summerside officials say Saturday's citywide power outage has been traced back to an earlier wind and rain storm.

That storm damaged a switch on an electrical pole, and likely happened within the last couple of weeks, said the city's deputy chief administrative officer J.P. Desroisers.

Desrosiers said water then got inside the switch and it shorted out on Saturday, causing a fire that damaged the pole beyond repair. The fire caused the city's entire electrical grid to shut down as a safety measure, he said.

When the city got notice of the outage, Desroisers said electrical crews assessed the rest of the 14 switches in the city, which took about an hour and a half.

After they were all found to be undamaged, the city started turning power back on over those switches one by one.

The whole city was without power for about 90 minutes, Desroisers said, and between 600 and 1,000 customers were in the dark for between four and five hours as the damanged pole was replaced and wires were restrung.

Desroisers said the electrical system is normally designed to shut off power only in the area of the affected pole, particularly in the event of a fire. But, because the damaged pole was close to the electrical substation, it triggered an outage across the entire city.

J.P. Desrosiers. Summerside's deputy CAO, says the citywide outage was an appropriate precaution to keep the electrical grid safe. (Steve Bruce/CBC)

"That's something that we're glad to see happen," he said. "That needs to be in place to keep the entirety of the grid safe."

Desrosiers said the Summerside power utility's staff have reviewed whether a total outage was necessary in this case, and concluded it was an appropriate precaution.

As the only city in P.E.I. with its own power utility, Desroisers said it likely makes Summerside more nimble when responding to incidents like these.

"It's easier for us to narrow down an issue, get to the scene, get it repaired in a faster manner," he said.

Desroisers added that as Summerside expands, the city is adding new electrical zones. This helps balance out the electrical load, with fewer people relying on power from each circuit.