BC Hydro spokesperson Karla Louwers joins the program to explain why ongoing work at the Sidney substation has temporarily left the Saanich Peninsula more susceptible to widespread outages. Crews have temporarily tied five circuits together while replacing aging equipment, meaning a fault that would normally affect a smaller area can knock out power to more than 8,200 customers. Recent outages were caused by branches contacting power lines, while an outage last week was apparently triggered when birds dropped a rabbit onto the wires. BC Hydro expects the substation work to be completed by July 9. 

Image: BC Hydro outage map