PEI experienced very cold weather last weekend, with windchills below -40C in some areas for extended periods of time. Pipes froze in buildings, in some cases because of power outages probably due either to Fiona-damaged trees coming down in strong winds or just the stress on the system.
Most Island buildings have traditionally been heated with furnace oil or wood or a combination of both. Households and businesses have been converting to air source heat pumps, often with electrical baseboard backup, as a cheaper source of heat, and as electricity prices are regulated on PEI, a source less susceptible to the fluctuations of world oil prices.
With all this added draw, our electrical system experienced its highest peak load ever on the weekend. When the CEO of Maritime Electric was asked in a CBC interview “How high can you go?”, he said he didn’t know and didn’t want to ever test it. I can’t say I found this to be very comforting.
On the same day this interview aired, the PEI government announced that a program to give Island homeowners free heat pumps will be expanded. Shouldn’t our electrical utility be able to tell us if they can meet this increasing demand, or if the system can handle it? I’m pretty sure Islanders would not be thrilled with the rolling blackouts common in other places.
I am writing to you from a house without electricity. This is the third time since post tropical storm Fiona blew through here at the end of September that our power has gone out from wind knocking trees over onto the line running along our lane. The electricity was out for nine days after Fiona, and this time it’s only been 22 hours, a dawdle.
We (have to) have a generator to keep the furnace, water pump, refrigerators, and a few lights going, but we usually only run it a few hours during the day, not constantly. It’s a Honda 6,500 watt that we bought in 2003 and it has given great service, even with shamefully little maintenance. It lives in our outbuilding and feeds underground to a sub-panel in our basement. I’m hoping very soon to replace or augment it with a battery backup system that would ideally be able to connect to our solar panels, which are grid tied and essentially dead during power outages.
Thankfully our internet provider stopped trying to restring our fibre line above ground and decided last month to bury it most of the 1,000 feet from the road to our house. When the generator is running, or the backup battery on the modem is in use, we can be online and make landline calls; this is a big improvement from pre-Fiona.
I’m not sure how we are going to deal with the remaining trees in our lane. There are dozens of white spruce to be cut, each about 60 years old and 60 feet tall, and it will be a big job, more than I can handle, and potentially dangerous near the power lines. We will also look at paying to have our line buried, though I have no idea what that would cost.
Since Fiona changed the structure of our forest, so many trees are exposed and keep snapping off or falling over in strong winds, and a few onto our power line. I’ve not been able to find the words to describe how Fiona destroyed parts of our forest. I still can’t believe how quickly the woods I knew so well were flattened.
I am aware that these minor hiccups and inconveniences are insignificant bumps on a privileged, gilded road. Many will never have the luxuries we have right now, even without electricity. It could be worse, no doubt about it, but it has been tiring and disorienting.
I developed a bit of a mantra to get through the days and weeks after Fiona, the endless lugging of brush and cutting of massive trees: At least a tree can only fall once. If they could only leave the power lines alone.
To keep sawdust out of your work boots, take an old pair of socks, cut off the foot, and use them as gaiters. A hack learned from my forester pal Bruce Craig, put to much use the past three months.
