Hydro-Quebec customers remain without electricity for over 60 hours in Montreal’s Saint-Michel borough

Around 1,000 Hydro-Quebec customers in Montreal’s Saint-Michel borough remain without electricity on Monday afternoon — something they haven’t had for over 55 hours now.

According to the province’s utility, the number hasn’t changed since the situation began at 2:45 a.m. on Dec. 14.

“A defect appeared on our underground lines in the area, which caused an outage. It was impossible to detect this weakness before the fault was triggered, since they are underground,” Hydro-Quebec told CityNews in an email.

“Since the outage has begun, our teams have replaced four spans of underground cables, but the tests required to safely restore power are inconclusive, and we are continuing to replace other sections of cable today,” they added. “Three generators will be started up this afternoon, restoring service to over 300 customers.”

Montreal police (SPVM) officers went door-to-door to assist residents, a heat station was opened, and an emergency shelter was set up Sunday for affected families.

Three automated calls were also made to customers to update them on the situation — and Hydro-Quebec said that they’ve been in communication with the city all weekend.

“All the necessary teams are mobilized,” they added. “And we are aiming for a return during the day.”

Should the network still not be repaired this evening, Hydro-Quebec said that their teams are preparing for the arrival of additional generators.

Hydro-Quebec also explains that the power restoration will be gradual, sector by sector. This is not to create an overload of the grid by the heating system, which will start up again all at once.

For now, they also warn to not use BBQs or other combustion appliances indoors, as they emit dangerous carbon monoxide.