Power issues around the construction site of the new Cowichan District Hospital have been resolved, according to BC Hydro.
Hydro spokesman Ted Olynyk said that as of Oct. 31, the power company has stabilized the local distribution system in the Bell McKinnon area where the hospital is being built.
A number of residents in the area had complained about intermittent power outages at their homes since the middle of October that lasted approximately 15 seconds each time, but it was enough to interfere with the working of their heat pumps, computers, clocks and other electronic equipment every time the power went out.
Olynyk said the problems began when BC Hydro recently reconfigured how electricity is supplied to some of its customers in the area to allow for key upgrades to electrical infrastructure which will eventually support the new hospital.
“Unfortunately, since then we have received reports of power-quality issues, including intermittent, brief outages and flickering lights,” he said. “We have discovered there was a problem with how the electricity was being distributed through the reconfigured grid. This was not an issue of not having enough power."
Olynyk said BC Hydro will continue to monitor the power supply in the area very closely for the time being to ensure there are no more problems.
“We remind customers that unplanned power outages due to storms or motor vehicle accidents could still occur,” he said. “We want to apologize and thank our customers for their patience while we worked on finding a solution and fixing the problem.”
