Hydro One workers gather at the Husky Travel Centre in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. Monday, September 11, 2017 before starting their journey to Florida, where they will help with Hurricane Irma relief efforts.Tara Walton/The Canadian Press
Canadian utilities are rushing crews to Florida and the Caribbean to assist in restoring power to the millions of customers left without electricity by Hurricane Irma.
Halifax-based Emera Inc. says its subsidiary, Teco Energy Inc., is still assessing the damage, but had 300,000 customers without power. The company is sending crews from Nova Scotia and Maine, with more than 130 workers either on the road or due to depart Tuesday.
All along Irma's destructive path, utility officials said it would take would take weeks, and perhaps months, before the recovery of full service was complete.
Nearly 60 people from the various operations of St. John's-based Fortis Inc. landed in the Turks and Caicos on Sunday, less than 48 hours after Irma pummelled the islands with Category 5 winds that left the territory almost completely without power. By midday Monday, FortisTCI – which has 15,000 customers spread across several islands – had restored electricity to the hospital, the water plant and some businesses on the resort island of Providenciales.
"There's lots of hard work ahead, but to get some of those early wins is important," Fortis chief executive Barry Perry said in an interview from St. John's. "Critical infrastructure is your first focus to create the support needed to allow you to move forward."
He said the first crews will likely be there for three weeks and will be supplemented by additional North American workers over time. "There's going to be several rotations before this is done," Mr. Perry said. "This is not something that is going to be finished in a week; this is going to take several weeks or months to bring back."
Mr. Perry said it is far too early to say how much the recovery effort in the Turks and Caicos will cost Fortis, though he noted the island subsidiary is a small part of the company's overall operations.
In Florida, about three million homes and businesses were without power on Monday morning, though in some cases the local utilities shut down electricity flow to ensure safety and prevent additional damage.
Emera's Teco said its crews were in the field to assess the damage and would restore power as quickly as possible. However, customers were complaining on the company's Facebook and Twitter accounts that they remained without electricity nearly 24 hours after the storm had passed.
"Our focus at this time is on assessing impacts to the electricity system, and the safe restoration of power to all our customers as quickly as possible," Emera spokesman Simon Couper said in an e-mail from Halifax.
"It is too early to have a complete picture of damages caused by Hurricane Irma or associated costs," he added.
Teco accounts for about 40 per cent of Emera's earnings and the company could take a significant hit in the third quarter as a result of the cost of cleanup and loss of revenue from sustained power outages, TD Bank analyst Linda Ezergailis said in a note on Monday. But she said Teco should provide Emera with strong, long-term growth.
The Canadian utilities are part of an integrated emergency-response system in which companies in eastern North America send crews when requested to assist in recovery from major storms that cause widespread power outages.
Hydro-Québec, Ontario's Hydro One Ltd. and Mississauga-based Alectra Inc. had all responded Monday to requests for assistance in Florida.
Typically, the local utility has to cover the recovery costs, including the visiting crews. Insurance covers some of their losses, while the cost of some repairs can be added to the rate base and amortized over many years.
Hydro One received a request for help on Saturday night from Florida Light & Power Co., and had two convoys crossing the border and headed to Florida on Monday, with a total of 175 employees and 80 pieces of equipment.
Florida's largest utility had more than four million customers without power on Sunday. It faced a massive recovery effort but said it had "assembled the largest restoration army in U.S. history" from 30 states and provinces.
"Our first feelings are to get down there and support our neighbours," Hydro One's vice-president, Natalie Poole-Moffatt, said in an interview.