{"id":33798,"date":"2021-01-20T16:03:55","date_gmt":"2021-01-20T21:03:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=33798"},"modified":"2021-01-20T16:03:55","modified_gmt":"2021-01-20T21:03:55","slug":"peculiarities-of-the-cortes-island-grid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/peculiarities-of-the-cortes-island-grid\/","title":{"rendered":"Peculiarities of the Cortes Island grid"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Roy L Hales<\/p>\n

BC Hydro\u2019s 2020 Annual report<\/a> provides insight, but local knowledge is needed to understand how it applies to the Cortes Island<\/a>\u00a0electric\u00a0grid<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"BC

Reliability performance from Vancouver Island\u2013 Sunshine Coast Community Relations 2020 Annual Report<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n

Power outages<\/h2>\n

Vancouver Island has more trees per kilometre of utility power line than any place else in North America and this can translate into power outages.<\/p>\n

The average\u00a0Campbell River\u00a0<\/a>resident experienced 1.86 power outages, averaging 2.55 hours in 2020. This seems high when compared to cities like Victoria and Nanaimo, but is better than Duncan or Port Hardy.<\/p>\n

Cortes Island does not appear in the graph, but a Squirrel Cove resident recorded 6 outages lasting between 2 and 12 hours (each) in her calendar. While the numbers are rounded off, this suggests Cortes is one of the worst areas in the Vancouver Island area for outages.<\/p>\n

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\"poer

Power outages in Squirrel Cove during 2020 \u2013 from a resident\u2019s calendar<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Replacing wooden poles<\/h2>\n

The average lifespan of a wooden power pole is 40 to 50 years, and BC Hydro is currently replacing more than 8,000 poles across BC.<\/p>\n

As\u00a0electricity reached Cortes Island in the early 1970s<\/a>, many of the poles are presumably near their end of use.<\/p>\n

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\"Trees

How transmission poles merge with the forest - Roy l Hales photo<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Where the power comes from<\/h2>\n

Vancouver Island produces about 40% of its electricity<\/a>. The remainder is supplied by two transmission submarine cable systems crossing the Strait of Georgia. The older of the two systems, built in the 1980s, crosses from the Sunshine Coast, over Texada Island and emerges at Qualicum Bay. A second cable, laid in 2008, connects Tsawwassen and Duncan.<\/p>\n

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Adapted from Google maps by Roy L Hales<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Transmission cables cross from Campbell River to\u00a0Quadra Island<\/a>, but Cortes\u2019 electricity comes from a different direction. A\u00a0submarine cable connects the Cortes Island electric grid to the Malaspina peninsula<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Roy L Hales BC Hydro\u2019s 2020 Annual report provides insight, but local knowledge is needed to understand how it applies to the Cortes Island\u00a0electric\u00a0grid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":33806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57],"tags":[314,5197],"radio":[252],"origine":[280,266,231],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33798"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33798"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=33798"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=33798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}