Hydro is working on a severe climate adaptation plan

After the passage of a derecho – a devastating meteorological phenomenon –, Saturday evening, in several regions, which deprived approximately 550,000 subscribers of electricity, Hydro-Québec indicates that it is working on a climate change adaptation plan to be better prepared. during such situations.

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This adaptation plan, which will be made public this fall, aims to take stock of the extreme weather phenomena that could occur in Quebec and see how Hydro-Quebec could limit the impacts as much as possible, mentioned Francis Labbé, spokesperson for the state corporation.

“We know that there will be more and more violent climates that will occur in the coming years,” he argues.

Since the ice storm

Moreover, these reflections on climate change have been imposed since the ice storm in 1998.

“It opened our eyes,” continues the spokesperson. We have researchers on this at the Research Institute in Varennes. »

The main elements under the magnifying glass of the researchers are the strong winds, the torrential rains and the forest fires.

It is Ouranos, a consortium on regional climatology and adaptation to climate change, which is at work in this file.

The state-owned company takes advantage in particular of the technology offered by artificial intelligence by working with digital twins of certain infrastructures.

In particular, they studied the digital twin of Manic-5.

“It allows you to simulate extreme weather conditions, see the problems [qu’elles engendrent sur les structures] and to be able to adapt our decisions to prevent them”, specifies the spokesperson.

Winds at 130 km/h on Saturday

Although Hydro-Québec makes every effort to ensure that its services remain functional even during major weather phenomena, there will always be situations that are out of control, underlines Mr. Labbé.

He recalls that the winds sometimes reached a speed of nearly 130 km / h on Saturday, at the height of the storm. A speed that can cause enormous damage.

“We will never be able to make our posts strong enough to withstand mature trees falling on them,” warns Mr. Labbé. At the end of the week, we had a particularly violent episode. »