BRITISH COLUMBIA HYDR® AND POWER AUTHORITY

2590 Barnet Hwy.,
Port Moody, B. C.
V3H 3P2

25th March, 1977

FILE: 413H-1615.0

Mr. R. A. Freeman

City Clerk

Corporation of the City
of Port Coquitlam
2272 McAllister Avenue
Port Coquitlam, B. C.

Dear Sir:

Re: Power Qutages - Port Coquitlam Northside

Thank you for your letter of 14th March, 1977, regarding power
outages in Port Coquitlam Northside.

We have initiated an analysis of all outages in your area during
1976, which will show the location and cause of any extensive outages. When
we receive the results we will be able to answer your enquiry more fully.

In general terms the power outages on the Northside during
periods of high winds are due to the high number of very large trees, mostly
on private property, which grow within falling distance of the roadways on
which our lines are situated. We regularly trim trees adjacent to our lines
to prevent branches shorting the lines during windy weather, and this has
been done extensively within the last six months in the Northside, but it is
impractical to fell or top all the large trees, many of them overmature or
dying, which can be blown down in a storm and fall from private property out
across the lines (and roadways). Indeed many property owners might strongly
resist attempts to remove such trees.

The extensive nature of some of the outages caused by falling
trees (and also by motor vehicles knocking down our poles) is due to the
fact that, because of the relatively light development, the whole area north
of. Prairie Avenue is supplied by one 12,000 volt feeder circuit fed from the
substation at Kingsway & Wilson. This feeder comprises a multi-branched "back-
bone" with many smaller branches which are fused where they leave the main
"backbone" so that a fault on the branch will not take out the whole feeder.