Raccoon Trouble: Nighttime Substation Visit Leaves Part of Gatineau Without Power

A significant power outage occurred in Gatineau overnight, and the cause, it turned out, was a raccoon that got into a Hydro-Québec substation. According to the utility company, the incident happened on Sunday at around 3 a.m. and affected approximately 10,700 customers. Protective systems were triggered automatically, shutting down the equipment to prevent more serious damage. Hydro-Québec reported that the infrastructure ultimately did not suffer major damage. By 10:45 a.m., fewer than 200 customers were still without power, and full service was restored by about 1:45 p.m. Company representatives also noted that such incidents happen many times a year, although birds are more often the cause than raccoons.

I live not far from Gatineau, and I felt this outage firsthand. Our home is heated with electricity, like many homes in Quebec, so even a few hours without power is felt especially sharply here. In outlying areas like ours, service only returned by midday. In Quebec, these kinds of outages are unfortunately not uncommon, and we have written more than once about this feature of the local power system.

As someone who worked for more than ten years in electric utility companies in Ontario, British Columbia, and the United States, I understand the complexity of such situations very well. Behind the apparent simplicity of this news story lies serious engineering logic: automation cuts the power not because the system is weak, but because this is precisely how it protects the grid, the equipment, and people. And this is far from the first time that animals have caused a power outage.

Author: Yuri N.