Hydro-Québec gradually restoring power after outage during deep freeze

After an early morning outage cut power to nearly 100,000 Montreal addresses early Tuesday morning, Hydro-Québec is gradually getting service back online.

The outage began at 6:25 a.m. on one of the coldest days of the winter. A spokesperson for the Crown corporation, Lynn St-Laurent, said it was due to equipment failure at a substation.

The outage primarily affected those in the boroughs of Ahuntsic-Cartierville, Montréal-Nord and Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension.

By noon, more than 15,000 clients were still without power, including some schools. The number of customers affected fluctuated in the afternoon, dropping as low as 3,800 and then back up to 6,800 at around 6:45 p.m.

"Obviously we want to get the power back as quickly as possible. We know that it's very cold and that's where our focus is right now," St-Laurent told CBC News.

St-Laurent says Hydro crews are trying to re-route power to customers from other parts of the grid.

She says electricity should be restored soon. 

WATCH | How cold snaps affect Quebec's power grid:

How cold snaps affect Quebec’s power grid

18 hours ago

Duration 2:45

Electricity consumption in Quebec skyrockets when extreme cold sets in. It’s tough to know exactly how much the network can handle before it crashes, but Hydro-Québec says it has been working on upgrading hydro dams, building more wind farms and replacing old equipment.