There could be fewer long-term power outages in Edmontonians’ futures, according to the city’s utilities giant. Epcor crews have completed upgrades to parts of the city’s power system to be “more resilient for extreme weather events as well as increased future growth,” engineering director Suzanne Landon told CTV News Edmonton. The resilience comes from changing how power flows in certain northeast and southwest communities by adding additional circuits and increasing underground and overhead cables. Work finished up in Meadowlark, Castle Downs and Windermere, most recently. “We also added more connections so we can route the power around in the event of an outage, and restore the system faster,” Landon explained. Epcor crews have responded to a barrage of extreme weather events in the last year, from heavy snow to torrential rain and gusting wind. Even a few days of prolonged heat can strain the system, Landon said. “So we want to be proactively managing the infrastructure to make sure we can meet the needs for increased demand as well as extreme weather events.” Edmontonians in communities that saw upgrades will not see an increase to their power bill as the $20-million project was pre-approved for already existing rates. With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Amanda Anderson
