Some residents in Montreal's NDG neighbourhood are asking Hydro-Quebec why the power is failing so often in their area.
Catherine Fichten said her friend has been logging all the power outages since March and found they've had about 80 hours without power.
Fichten adds that the outages can be dangerous.
She has two friends who have CPAP machines to treat sleep apnea that they depend on to breathe at night.
They are not only people who need power to live, she said.
"Think of people who need to use elevators," she said. "Think of people who are using wheelchairs and need adapted devices to get up to their houses."
Many of the blackouts are only a few minutes or hours at a time, but they are a nuisance and can disrupt medical equipment.
The owner of the Kiku sushi restaurant on Monkland Avenue said he had to buy a generator to protect his seafood and has had to pay out of pocket to keep staff on hand for hours when they don't know if the power is coming back on again.
"It's so often that it's a big headache to manage that," "Hydro always says the same thing, 'It's because of mother nature,' or 'we have to fight fires up north.' We understand all that, but it's not normal that it's so frequent."
Hydro-Quebec said that NDG is susceptible to power outages because it has a lot of old trees, and it has to consult with the borough before trimming trees.
Fichten doesn't buy the story, as many of the outages happen on clear days and nights without storms, fires or wind.
She is reaching out to borough mayor Gracia Kasoki Kahtawa about the problem.
The utility company said it also has to replace the Hampstead substation, which is nearing the end of its life.
"It's currently at the end of its life service, which means that it's more vulnerable to issues with its circuit breakers, for example, or voltage transformers," said Hydro-Quebec spokesperson Genevieve Fortin-Blanchard. "We've been repairing those, and also, we've been patrolling problematic lines to inventory the equipment that needs to be repaired."
The substation will not be replaced until around 2026.
Hydro-Quebec said it wants to hear from residents each and every time the power goes out so they can pinpoint exactly where the problems and weaknesses are.
