r/chilliwack • u/BigPlunk • 12d ago

Power

I see from the BC Hydro map most of Chilliwack is out. I’ve heard Agassiz is also out. Anybody have non speculative insight on this?

Seems like a pretty major event.

37 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

46 comments sorted by

37

u/beekermc 12d ago

I work for BC Hydro and I can tell you that it is likely someone fucked up.

16

u/Rampage_Rick 12d ago edited 12d ago

The last big outage like this was in 2012 when one of the transformers at Atchelitz substation caught fire:

https://theprogress.com/2012/01/30/cleanup-starts-in-chilliwack-in-wake-of-substation-fire/

Given the outages appear to radiate outward from Sumas, Chilliwack, and Kent substations, I'd wager this is a failure of the 69kV circuits (black) that are fed from Atchelitz...

5

u/BigPlunk 12d ago

Like somebody parked their truck inside a high voltage line or someone inside BC Hydro shat the bed?

12

u/beekermc 12d ago

If i had to guess, it was a poorly designed outage plan that led to unexpected outages of nearby circuits. 

Ive seen it happen other places, this week.

4

u/BigPlunk 12d ago

Yikes. Time to update the SOPs if that’s the case.

3

u/Bitter_Bert 12d ago

There was a small planned outage in Promontory I see. That kind of fuck up?

1

u/storm4chaser 12d ago

2012? Ive seen many issues for alot of people just in the last year.. once we were out for just under 3 days... mmmm maybe it was a day and a half but we sure started clearing out the fridges... great pot luck dinners! If your the type to see the shiny side of things

1

u/BloomingFromThorns 12d ago

That is comforting. It is weird, when I went on the internet, as I have wifi where I am I got a malware warning. Likely AI, or click malware, but it was a bit unnerving seeing how many outages there are including the island.

21

u/Lashiech 12d ago

Abbotsford too, also my cellular internet has been in and out. I'm assuming thats related

8

u/BigPlunk 12d ago

Yes. Spotty internet via data here. Cell tower power must also be impacted.

10

u/Rampage_Rick 12d ago

All of the Telus microcells mounted on poles do not have battery backup.

When the power goes out, thousands of phones then try to jump onto the larger macro towers.

2

u/Arkroma 12d ago

Is Rogers in a similar boat because their cell service failed too?

2

u/Rampage_Rick 12d ago

Depends where you are. I know Rogers has microcells in Mission.

All of the big towers should have battery backup good for a couple hours at the very least...

https://celltowers.ca/?lat=49.1&lon=-122.1&zoom=12

2

u/Ravensqueak 12d ago

Yes. Every outage we've had recently, I'll have cellular signal for maybe an hour into the outage. Data will become spotty, then it'll become nearly impossible to load any web pages, another hour or two after that I'll lose cellular service entirely.

All those devices jumping off wifi to cellular in the middle of the night, then everyone waking up and trying to check the news or the outage map at about 5am overloads the towers.

2

u/Dekkera_ 12d ago

When the power is out and the home internet is down everyone turn their phones into hotspots.

1

u/BigPlunk 12d ago

That’s good to know. Thank you for your insight.

7

u/GoulashSt3w 12d ago

Mine is back now!

2

u/[deleted] 12d ago

[deleted]

4

u/GoulashSt3w 12d ago

Evans Rd area

2

u/[deleted] 12d ago

[deleted]

1

u/Hip_Hop_Orangutan 12d ago

Williams at Yale came back on a few minutes ago.

7

u/CZILLROY 12d ago

Power just came back on downtown literally right this moment

9

u/BossHoss00 12d ago

Site says transmission circuit failure. Not ideal lol

-4

u/[deleted] 12d ago

[deleted]

3

u/Anxious_Ad2683 12d ago

High voltage power line failure.

4

u/superhawk996vtr1000 12d ago

Yarrow is out too

2

u/BigPlunk 12d ago

Crazy! Some of Abbotsford too.

4

u/Dannerz66 12d ago

Powers back for me near local harvest/Lickman

3

u/Oceanraptor77 12d ago

Power back on Watson

6

u/Arkroma 12d ago

Remember it's election season so bother all the candidates about power and phone infrastructure in Chilliwack. I'd like my family to be able to get a 9-11 call through out here.

3

u/Nescobar_A 12d ago

Back on near South Sumas and Tyson.

3

u/TheMalibu 12d ago

Its so spotty. Most of the valley is out. But some traffic lights work, thankfully. My neighborhood seems to have power, but nowhere around us. Tyson and Watson rd area.

3

u/schroedingerskoala 12d ago

They now show "Substation fault" almost everywhere between Abbotsford and Hope.

2

u/Additional-Zombie244 12d ago

Midtown was only out for about 20 mins

2

u/Bleachioli123 12d ago

Aliens

1

u/storm4chaser 12d ago

Definitely ancient ones

3

u/Faloway 12d ago

Did anything happen at the substation on Lickman? I haven't heard anyone mention seeing or hearing something

1

u/Shadowman667 12d ago

Seems to be good now

1

u/storm4chaser 12d ago

I experienced nothing?

3

u/BigPlunk 12d ago

Crazy! Over 40,000 people were without power according to the BC Hydro outage map. You got lucky.

1

u/storm4chaser 12d ago

Ya never even looked at my generator, and the trafic lights worked for me.. honestly the power guys around here are 100% top notch. I have seen them fix alot of problems. Best of luck.. its going to get windy wet and cold soon

1

u/lomak1358 12d ago

Not long ago same thing happened but reached Hope. They must be getting ready for the world wide blackout I read about last year. 😂

-1

u/oninokamin 12d ago

Probably has something to do with the ongoing demolition of the Hwy 11 overpass in Abby. Someone must have hit something they shouldn't have.

1

u/Rampage_Rick 12d ago

That was a couple days ago and there are no power lines in the vicinity. They demolished 7 meters of the north side of the overpass:

https://www.reddit.com/r/abbotsford/comments/1wwb2mb/comment/pdjjlu2/

All signs point to some kind of failure at Atchelitz substation in Yarrow, which killed power to Sumas, Chilliwack, and Kent substations (plus two Trans Mountain pump stations - TMO and WHP on the map I posted above)