Summerside Mayor Bill Martin frustrated over Thursday power outages

Summerside Mayor Bill Martin is publicly expressing his frustration over the recent power outages across Prince Edward Island.

A storm Thursday brought high winds and wet, heavy snow that devastated power lines and poles. In addition, problems with the underwater cable that connects the grid to New Brunswick cut off the flow of electricity from the mainland.

"Had we purchased the capacity generator that staff recommended we would have had full power in the city all day," Martin said in a Facebook post late Thursday night.

Alternative power

In April, Summerside city council decided to postpone a decision to develop a $23 million backup electric generator.

The city was looking at inking a deal with Kore Energy to install the 16-megawatt generator to meet the city's generation capacity needs.

Currently, the city generates 46 per cent of its own electricity through wind power and buys additional energy from NB Power, but was looking at generating its own power in full rather than continuing to purchase power from out-of-province.

Some councillors and community members were concerned the purchase of the generator could be a move away from the city's commitment to green energy, and were interested in seeing if a greener alternative was viable.

Challenges with green energy

The city has hired consulting firm Dunsky to look at possible options. Martin said the city is expecting that report soon.

Although Summerside has a reputation as a green city, Martin said, strong winter storms like the one Islanders experienced on Thursday pose challenges for green alternatives to generating power.  

"The challenge with green energy is on a day like yesterday, windmills cannot operate because the wind is blowing too high," he said in an interview Friday. 

"There was absolutely no sun so you've got no solar capacity to draw on."

Health and safety concerns

Martin said like many others in Summerside, he faced challenges during the storm without power. He said he was stuck bailing water from his basement for about two hours with his family after his own generator failed.

"We own a business. Had the power not come on at 7:15 p.m. last night [at] the bakery, we would have probably lost in excess of $10,000 of product," he said.

Health, safety and security during storms should also be taken into account, he said.

'New normal'

Energy security is vital, Martin said. 

"The weather is changing. And we're not through November yet and we've already had enough winter for my liking," he said.

"This is the new normal."   

Martin said he got many calls during the outage from concerned residents and had neighbours knocking on his door. 

"It's relatively easy to say, I wish we had that generator."

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