New transformer arrives at Hampstead substation to replace broken one
Posted January 29, 2026 1:39 pm.
A new transformer to replace the broken one that caused a blackout in parts of Montreal over the weekend arrived at the Hampstead substation on Wednesday.
The substation serves residents of Côte Saint-Luc, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and Hampstead.
A breaker failure plunged thousands of residents of those neighbourhoods – particularly Côte Saint-Luc and NDG – in the dark and cold during a weekend deep freeze.
During the peak of the outage on Saturday morning, about 15,000 households were without power. Some of those were still without electricity two days later.
The broken transformer meant the Hamstead substation, which is actually located in Côte Saint-Luc, was operating at 75 per cent. Increased pressure on the network meant those three transformers were not enough to meet the demand.
Before the new transformer arrived Wednesday, Hydro-Québec responded with temporary measures such as adding some 10 generators.
About 900 households saw their homes go dark again on Wednesday. The Crown utility explained that was done to strengthen the grid while the broken transformer was replaced.
The Hampstead substation is scheduled to be fully upgraded by 2029.
It’s part of a larger Hydro-Québec project to upgrade the power transmission system between the Saraguay substation in Saint‑Laurent and the Aqueduc substation in LaSalle.
The project, which Hydro-Québec says is designed to “meet the growing energy demand in Montreal’s west end,” will convert the existing transmission line from 120 kilovolts to 315 kilovolts.
