Well, look at that! Today the Corix guy arrived, and here he is installing our smart meter. Our power was only out for about 10 seconds. I asked how many customers refuse smart meter installation. He said it’s about 2-3% elsewhere, but about 10% on Gabriola. (Thanks to the installer for giving me permission to [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island 14 Comments so far
Hey, I thought that smart meters had been delayed or postponed or something. Apparently not! A BC Hydro advert in the Gabriola Sounder says Beginning this October, we’ll be on Gabriola Island to exchange your old meter with a new smart meter. The ad suggests you visit http://bchydro.com/smartmeterinstall for more information. Plenty of people are [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island 13 Comments so far
Now that Gabriola’s power is back on and your neighbours have stopped gloating about how wonderful their generator is, there’s time to noodle around on the interwebs and see photos of a BC Hydro power crew at work on Gabriola, presumably up in that bucket thingy to restore your power. They were at the intersection [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island,weather 3 Comments so far
Did you see the drilling equipment down at Brickyard Beach the other day? According to the Daily News (and some Gabriola friends) it was test drilling for power-lines. Contractors for B.C. Hydro wrapped up two days of drilling on Wednesday to see if powerlines feeding Gabriola Island can be routed underground. With the lines nearing [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island 4 Comments so far
Were you up when Gabriola’s power went out this morning? BC Hydro says the cause was a motor vehicle accident, though the Gabriola grapevine — ever more specific! — says car crashed into power pole in Cedar. BC Hydro says that 3,260 BC Hydro customers were affected, and that power was out from 5:10 am [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island Comments Off
Thanks to BC Hydro staff on Gabriola for fixing things so that we have power again this morning. Here’s what I’m wondering: when the power goes out on Gabriola, how do the repair crews know where the problem is? They can’t be relying on somebody to phone and say a tree fell across power lines [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island Comments Off
I’d love to be off-the-grid as far as power is concerned. And hmmm, maybe the rest of Gabriola would as well, if it were easy and cheap enough. Here’s an article from the (Utah) Herald Extra that will be of interest to anybody who dreams of these things: New battery could change world, one house [...]
Filed in environment Comments Off
There are lots of things I hate about power outages on Gabriola. Not being able to flush toilets or run water is a big one, and a nasty surprise for city visitors. Having my internet access cut off is not a good thing, either. But the thing that disturbs my sleep and my equilibrium is [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island Comments Off
Look what the Shingle just published: Local accommodation stymies Hydro’s power outage response. If you think Gabriola’s power outages are too long, you may want to invite a BC Hydro worker home for supper and a nap. A lack of suitable island accommodations means Hydro (BCH) probably won’t send repair crews to the island until [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island,weather 2 Comments so far
This showed up in my email this morning: The problem for Gabriola is that it is more vulnerable, for equipment reasons, not more wasteful than other communities. Gabriola has a single-feed connection from Cedar (in most other communities, load imbalances can be much more easily evened out). BC Hydro says part of the Okanagan is [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island Comments Off
So apparently that power use warning is for real after all. The Nanaimo Daily News has the story. Gabriola Islanders are being asked by B.C. Hydro to reduce their power consumption, and/or shift the times of the day they use more power, over the Christmas season. The best line is attributed to BC Hydro spokesman [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island Comments Off
I’ve had several versions of this email today: BC Hydro phoned our RDN rep Gisele Rudischer and said that they are trying to stabilize our power today and would like us to cut back our usage. They are worried that we will lose our electricity. It is especially important to conserve during the peak hours [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island,Nanaimo Comments Off
