BC Hydro Can't Handle All Your Air Conditioners

Today is supposed to be be the hottest day of the year for us Vancouverites, with a predicted high of 28 degrees Celsius by the water, 37 degrees inland. The mercury is bursting out of the top of our thermometers, so it's understandable that residents in Downtown Vancouver have their air conditioners going at full blast. But that's the exact opposite of what BC Hydro wants you to do.

The provider of electricity is warning people that they should "turn the air conditioning down, even if the temperature goes up." This is because two transformers serving the downtown core failed on July 5th and they have every reason to believe that more failures and problems will arise if people continue to use their air conditioners at the level that they are. The power delivery just can't handle it and there is only one transformer left.

Now there's a chance that the final transformer could also fail if people who live and work downtown don't conserve their energy use, according to BC Hydro spokeswoman Gillian Robinson.

To make matters worse, a garbage strike appears to be imminent, so residents of Downtown Vancouver may not only be faced with a hot summer (with minimal air conditioning), but a stinky one too.

Source: CBC

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[ READER COMMENTS ]

1

Gillian Robinson said:

I'm not sure the source of your news report on www.2010vancouver.ca- it was definitely not CBC as you attributed this report to. BC Hydro had only one transformer that serves the downtown core fail and the call for conservation was for downtown customers only. BC Hydro is equipped to handle the demand of air conditioners in British Columbia and we asked for conservation only in the downtown core in order to keep the remaining transformer in its optimal operating zone and not cause any additional load on it during the hot weather. Contrary to your report, the chance of the second transformer failing was remote, it was repaired two weeks later and that substation is again operating normally. Downtown customers responded with excellent conservation measures and reduced the load at the peak period by about 8%.

Posted at 11:57 AM, on August 2 2007

BC Hydro Can't Handle All Your Air Conditioners

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