‘We’re demanding answers’: Edmundston mayor frustrated by power outages amid cold snap

The NB Power headquarters in Fredericton. (Source: Nick Moore/CTV News Atlantic)

The mayor of Edmundston, N.B., is demanding answers from NB Power after prolonged outages left thousands of people in the area without electricity while an extreme cold warning was in effect.

The outages started Tuesday when NB Power experienced an issue affecting a transmission line. More than 5,000 customers had no electricity at one point Tuesday, prompting the City of Edmundston to open a warming centre.

Edmundston Mayor Eric Marquis says power was mostly restored to the area Tuesday night, but there was another outage Wednesday morning.

“We are extremely disappointed of the situation that is going on right now with the extreme low temperatures that we are having, actually,” Marquis told CTV News Wednesday.

“We saw people that were actually pissed off about this because it’s been the second day. Now, we’re not in the middle of July, we’re in the middle of January, so there’s a much bigger difference here. People are concerned – pipes, water, some have young kids.”

An extreme-cold warning was in effect Tuesday, with temperatures feeling like -40C with the wind chill in some areas. The warning was lifted Wednesday, but frigid temperatures persist in the region.

“The daytime-high temperature for Wednesday is forecast to be near -14 with the wind chill, making it feel near -20,” said CTV Atlantic’s Chief Meteorologist Kalin Mitchell.

“While not expected to be quite as cold Wednesday night into Thursday, the temperature is still expected to drop well into the -20s and feeling near -30 with the wind chill.”

Edmundston resident Eric Michaud says he was without power for almost eight hours Tuesday and he lost power again Wednesday morning.

“It’s been very cold,” said Michaud. “With the temperatures we’re having the last two days, once the power is back up, it takes a long time to heat up the house, and what we’re noticing is we’re not getting a lot of information from Energy New Brunswick from what’s going on.”

After power was mostly restored Tuesday, Marquis says he asked NB Power if it could keep some workers on the ground in case of further outages.

“Unfortunately, that did not happen, and the workers left and again, this morning at 9:15 when everything dropped, we were faced with this situation,” he said.

“We’re demanding answers from NB Power to try to figure out what’s going on because we can’t go on every day like this, again another day or two days or three days, until we actually know what the problem is [and] they fix it, but on the other side, we’re asking NB Power to put some money on the transmission infrastructure because what it’s telling us right now is that it’s in pretty bad shape.”

Nicole Poirier, operations vice president with NB Power, said the ongoing issues could be resolved by warmer weather.

“We have all that contingency and all of our folks are ready and available if something like that were to happen again, but if it’s related to what we think it is -- and, again, we’re working on that -- it will be somewhat resolved by temperatures going up,” Poirier said.

NB Power won’t compensate for outages

Most of Wednesday’s outages have since been restored.

“We understand how frustrating and difficult it is to experience outages, especially during harsh weather conditions,” said NB Power in a statement Wednesday.

“Crews are still on-site, working to ensure the long-term reliability of the transmission line. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and understanding as we continue our efforts.”

In a second statement to CTV News, the utility said it can’t guarantee power 100 per cent of the time, and it’s focusing on solutions to minimize similar disruptions in the future.

“We understand how disruptive outages can be and the impact they have on customers, and we regret the inconvenience,” said NB Power.

“Unfortunately, we’re unable to offer compensation for outages.”

Marquis noted issues with the same transmission line caused a power outage in December 2019. The outage lasted almost 30 hours and affected half of the city.

Marquis has asked for a meeting with NB Power Thursday morning.

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