Power restoration has improved since Arthur, NB Power president says

NB Power is looking to expand rights-of-way and trim more trees to reduce the number of power outages during storms.

Many of the power outages from last weekend's powerful winds and the delays in restoring service are due to large trees falling on power lines, NB Power president and CEO Gatan Thomas says.

"A typical six-metre right-of-wayis really not enough with these kinds of storms the lines are not designed to withstand a 40, 50-foot tree," Thomas said in an interview TuesdaywithInformation Morning Fredericton.

Thomas said he will be approaching mayors across the province about expanding rights-of-way.

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"This storm is actually the one that covered the widest, from the province's point of view," Thomas said. "That's the first time we were hit in every district, even withArthur and the ice storm."

In recent years, New Brunswickerssuffered some of the longest power outages during post-tropical storm Arthur in July 2014 and during the ice storm in January 2017.

Thomas said NB Power is already four years into a seven year tree-trimming program that hascost tens of millions of dollars and will help reduce the number of power outages.

Little by little, he said, the plan is working.

"By the time we have finished the tree-trimming expenditures over the next three years, our reliability will be as good as any in the region," he said.

Utility says restoration is improving

Because of the trimming, NB Power is also getting more efficient at restoring power, although storm impacts are becoming more severe.

"I can assure you that this type of storm is going to be recovered way faster than if we didn't do the tree-trimming," he said.

Thomas said the utility's average restoration time has been improving.

He cited theice storm on the Acadian Peninsula, when power was restoredin 10 days, despite four times the damage caused byArthur, which left some customers without power for two weeks.

On Saturday night, parts of the province were hit with 110-kilometre-an-hour winds,and power was knocked out to more than 92,000 households.

Many schools and businesses stayed closed on Monday and some were still closed on Tuesday. Thousands of households still didn't have their power back late Tuesday afternoon.

Thomas said he expects all power to be restored by Wednesday night or Thursday morning at the latest.

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Before the storm hit, Thomas said, he wasin constant communication with crews outside the province.

"When you have a storm that is moving in an area, everybody is actually waiting for their own impact," he said."People won't release crews until they know their own areas have been cleared."

Power out in New Brunswick

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New Brunswick is still waiting for power to be restored after Saturday's wind storm.

On Tuesday,day three of the outages, 250 crews were working to restore power.

Thirty crews were mobilized before the storm hit.

"That gave us a real good head start," Thomas said."You never know where the wind will hit hardest. In this case, it hit all throughout New Brunswick the hardest."

Public wants answers

Residents across the province have been raising questions on social media about the reliability of New Brunswick's power system, which seems to go on the blink more frequently than elsewhere.

Quispamsis Mayor Gary Clark, who has been without power since Saturday, said he has been getting calls from residents in a similar situation.

Clark said he and others are concerned about the frequency of the power outages and the time it takes to fix them.

"I have a lot of questions and concerns," he said,staring at a tree that had fallenon a power line near his home and still hadn't been cleared.

"We need to look at this and I would like answers. We haven't even entered into the winter months yet and this is happening already."

Clark said he has asked to meet NB Power officials to get answers aboutthe frequency and length of outages and how widespread they are.

He said he would like to see some utility operations moved underground.

But Thomas said underground power lines aren't possible because the cost "is prohibitive," at10 times the cost of above-ground lines.

He said the underground power lines would also be harder to repair in New Brunswick, which is frequently hit by storms.

"The underground is not an affordable option, [but] tree trimming is and expanding right of ways," he said.