Power lines damaged by the Nk’Mip Creek wildfire continue to constrain FortisBC’s peak period capacity with the power company asking ahead of a hot long weekend that customers conserve from 4-8 p.m. daily.
A FortisBC spokesperson told Times-Chronicle that two of its power lines have been damaged by the fire and crews on the ground have been assessing to determine what repairs are needed.
“The Inkaneep Creek wildfire has forced us to de-energize parts of our electricity system. While the system is still stable, we may be operating on the upper end of our limits on our system,” FortisBC said.
Making matters worse, a ‘heat warning’ for the North, Central and South Okanagan has been issued by Environment Canada for the next two days. A ridge of high pressure will lead to rising temperatures for Friday and Saturday with daytime highs near 35 degrees combined with overnight lows near 18 degrees forecast for Friday and Saturday. Relatively cooler temperatures are expected Sunday into Monday.
The FortisBC spokesperson acknowledged there have been ongoing sporadic power outages but highlighted there is enough supply and customers can help ensure the capacity is not pushed beyond the limits by reducing consumption.
Last week during the initial days of the wildfire customers were first asked to conserve energy, with FortisBC saying: “we did see less load on our system and we thank everyone who helped us during this time.”
As in its previous request, FortisBC has suggested ways in which you can reduce your energy use, including washing dishes by hand or setting the timers on dishwashers to run in the middle of the night, doing laundry later in the evening, reducing air conditioning use. Unlike the last advice, cooking outdoors with a barbeque was dropped from the suggestions.
