2023-07-19 10:26:29
Hydro-Québec is increasing its investments for vegetation control work. The state corporation will invest $126 million in 2024 to better protect its network. Investments have doubled in 6 years in the province.
Preventive maintenance work on the network in Bas-Saint-Laurent will be concentrated in the Mitis, Neigette, Basques and Saint-Alexandre-de-Kamouraska sectors this year.
Hydro-Québec plans the pruning work to be carried out taking into account the life cycles of the vegetation. The history of breakdowns and all the situations experienced during the previous year guide the priorities of the places of intervention.
“We know it, we see it, vegetation causes 40% of outages in urban areas and up to 70% of outages in more remote areas, explains the regional business advisor for Hydro-Québec in Bas-Saint- Laurent, Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine, Ariane Doucet-Michaud.
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“We saw it this winter with the breakdowns during the holiday season. Then, we see it a lot with the increase in extreme weather events with climate change. When the vegetation comes into contact with the network, well that causes breakdowns. It is really to ensure a better quality of service, then to ensure the safety of our installations.
Hydro-Québec must maintain 21,532 km of distribution network in the region. The pruning work is planned for 2023 and 2024. The targeted sectors have already been identified.
“The planning is done by our experts, our forest engineers. We also have technicians who work directly in the region when it comes to supervising the work. Then, it is pruners who are certified, it should be remembered, who are authorized to intervene near the lines. So it will be general contracts, framework contracts that will be granted to different companies, ”says Ms. Doucet-Michaud.
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The companies that take part in this work are certified.
“It’s really important not to approach and to be certified to be able to intervene near the network. We have seen it in the past years, there are always unfortunate events that occur, we must not improvise as a pruner.
“It really takes a certification to go and do vegetation control near transmission lines and distribution lines,” adds the regional affairs advisor for Hydro-Québec in Bas-Saint-Laurent, Gaspésie-Îles-de-la. -Madeleine.
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