2024 saw the most amount of power outages for BC Hydro customers due to weather.
That comes from a recent survey done by BC Hydro, finding that nearly three-quarters of British Columbians have experienced at least one weather-related power outage last year.
The survey also shows over 1.4 million customers lost power because of weather events, the highest in Hydro’s history.
Hydro says this number comes because of three storms that hit the South Coast and Vancouver Island in November and December.
“These storms were among the top five largest in the past decade, resulting in about one million customer outages combined,” said BC Hydro.
“The storms were exacerbated by years of drought that left trees and vegetation across the province dry, damaged, and more susceptible to falling into BC Hydro infrastructure, causing outages.”
Hydro spokesperson Susie Rieder says despite the increase in outages, their response time is improving.
“We have maintained our track record of restoring power to 90 per cent of customers within 24 hours, with about three-quarters restored within less than 12 hours,” said Rieder.
To improve their response time to outages, Hydro is focused on better dispatching crews, increasing vegetation management, using smart meter data, improving meteorological models, and improving communication with customers.
