The weather does not seem too bad. So why is the power outage?

While many Nova Scotia Power customers living on the Halifax subway and elsewhere looked out the window this morning at the relatively mild weather conditions, they may have wondered why they were in the dark.

Most of the Halifax Peninsula was without electricity, much like Dartmouth and the suburbs of Halifax, accounting for nearly half of the 250,000 customers without electricity. electricity.

Nova Scotia Power spokesperson Tiffany Chase said the problem that affected much of mainland Cape Breton came from Cape Breton, where thick snow and tree branches on Power lines interrupted the transmission system near Port Hawkesbury.

There are two types of lines in the system, said Chase.

Transmission lines are high-voltage connectors that run along motorways and carry electricity from power plants, while lower-voltage distribution lines separate from these transmission lines and supply electricity directly. to customers.

Most of the electricity used by the province comes from power plants and wind farms in Cape Breton. This means that a problem with the transmission line can affect the distribution lines, including customers who are far from the original problem, Chase said.

"So, when we had an outage on our own network near Port Hawkesbury this morning, we could not send electricity to customers further downstream, especially in the Halifax subway and … on the Shore. -South up to Yarmouth. "

Protective measures

She said that another factor in widespread blackouts was the protective measures that come into effect in the network when the offer goes down.

"If you have a large number of customers trying to draw electricity but you do not have online supply, the protection is set up to cut off the power in electricity, which creates a power outage, "said Chase.

In addition to interrupting transportation to Port Hawkesbury, a second stop just across the border with New Brunswick affected approximately 100,000 customers in Nova Scotia.

The networks of the two provinces are connected. For example, when New Brunswick Power suffered a transmission disruption at Memramcook, the system attempted to draw its energy from that of Nova Scotia. But because Nova Scotia did not have enough power, these protections came into effect and led to failures on both sides.

Restoration time

By noon, electricity should be restored in most of the Halifax metropolitan area, on the South Shore at 4 pm and in most of northern Nova Scotia at 11:30 am.

Chase stated that the restoration times listed on the public service website are developed using the best information available to the company at any given time.

She added that the company needed to identify the exact location of the shutdown and then ensure that it can restart the production of electricity safely.