Exasperated by 180 power failures in three years

Photo Pierre-Paul Biron
Paul-Emile Nicol, Noella Goulet, Denis Nicol and Anne-Marie Lemieux are no longer able to power outages, incessant that they have endured over the last three years now. They point the finger at the commissioning of the wind park of Saint-Philémon, which coincides with the beginning of the problems.

Pierre-Paul Biron

Wednesday, 7 march, 2018 00:00

UPDATE
Wednesday, 7 march, 2018 06:36

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A couple of young retirees of Saint-Philémon in the Chaudière-Appalaches thought would buy the house of their dreams in 2014, but after 180 outages and power cuts in three years, the dream turns rather to the nightmare.

Anne-Marie Lemieux and Denis Nicol have completely renovated their charming home of route 281 in Saint-Philemon to come there to spend their retirement.

However, they were disillusioned when the electrical problems started in the fall of 2014, a few months after their move.

“We started the record, from December. Three years later, it is returned to approximately 180 cuts that have been observed “, laments the couple, who points the finger at the wind farm community of Saint-Philémon. The commissioning of eight wind turbines corresponds with the beginning of the problems. “There are things that cannot be coincidences “, they believe, stating that three other neighbours are facing the same problems. “It feels like the Gauls. “

At the end of ” make complete “

Cuts and electricity outages experienced by the couple can go from a few seconds to several hours. If they say they understand that the network can know the misfires from time to time, they fear that cuts to repeat do not come to damage some of their equipment.

“Hydro-Québec suggested to me to buy me a surge protector for my electrical panel. But it is up to us to invest 500$ to solve a problem with which one has nothing to do”, asks Anne-Marie Lemieux, who has initiated action with the State-owned company as of January 2015 to resolve the problem.

To this day, the couple maintains that nothing has changed, despite two letters and several phone calls. In fact, Ms. Lemieux and Mr. Nicol say they are exasperated “to be completed” by Hydro-Québec. “We were told that it could be caused by small animals or vegetation. It is laughter of the people. We arrive in the area Maizerets in Quebec city, where the squirrels are as big as cats, and it has never caused problems,” says the woman who points out the joke that she can no longer reprogram the time on his stove and microwave.

Pruning

For its part, the Crown corporation ensures that the problems of the residents of Saint-Philémon have nothing to do with the commissioning of the wind farm. In fact, the cuts would be caused by the many trees that are in the area. Hydro-Québec indicates that the last pruning in the sector dated back to 2010.

“This is an area that is in agriculture and forestry, and we often have problems with the control of the vegetation. Quickly it began clearing operations and pruning in the areas most at risk. It’s been already a year that a major operation was undertaken,” says Geneviève Gourd, indicating that the pruning of the line is expected to be completed by the next year.

As for the number of outages and outages caused by these problems of vegetation, Ms. Gourd said that they are actually non-standard. “It is simply unacceptable. This are not numbers in the normal way, and we will do everything to solve the problem,” says the spokesperson of the organization.

The management of Capstone Infrastructure indicates that the facilities of the wind farm are subject to the same failures as the residents. The company specifies, however, that the problems of this type were the responsibility of Hydro-Québec and its network.

“Generally, any failure experienced by residents connected to a distribution line is associated with problems of the system of Hydro-Quebec,” says Amanda Dillon, a spokesman for the company, adding that “the mechanisms for preventing problems with electrical power from the wind farm are in place”.

A never-before-seen in 71 years

Paul-Émile Nicol lives in the same house from the road 281 for 71 years and provides have never been so many power outages that since the arrival of the wind farm. “Before there were failures on the fingers of one hand in a year. Today we have the misery to make it a week without running out of power,” says the septuagenarian, who has had enough of the situation.

The man lives in the same house from the road 281 since his childhood. He grew up there and knows the area like the back of his pocket. For him, it is impossible that animals, or vegetation can cause electricity problems as claimed by Hydro-Québec. “Squirrels there were before, trees also, yet there was no lack of power before,” sighed he.

Close the current

Since he has had to replace a refrigerator damaged after a crash some time after the commissioning of the wind farm, the seventy-year-old takes drastic measures to avoid breakage. “When it starts flashing, I go down into the basement to go and close the hand (the main power) directly into the electrical panel for no jumps,” explains the man who does not find normal to have to take all these precautions.

Mr Nicol adds that, in the end, the installation of a wind park of Saint-Philémon has been for him and his neighbors that a set of problems that they would be well spent.

“They defeated a part of my field to succeed in turn in the row with the trucks, they condemned one of my entries and when all is finished, it has electricity problems. For the rest of us, it will have been just the trouble”, ” falling leaves Paul-Emile Nicol.

The fault in Anne-Marie Lemieux and Denis Nicol

Since the December 24, 2014 :

• 179 failures and outages identified
• Average of 4.7 outages and outages by month
• Sometimes up to 10 cuts in the same day
• From a few seconds to several hours
• Longest outage : 22 hours
• 12 cuts since the start of 2018

The wind farm, the community of Saint-Philémon

• 8 wind turbines
• Capacity of 24 megawatts
• Sponsors : Capstone Infrastructure and the MRC de Bellechasse
• Project of about$65 Million