Residents in northwestern British Columbia experienced time appearing to speed up this week due to a scheduled B.C. Hydro maintenance outage on a transmission line from August 28 to 31. This situation led to some clocks running faster than usual, causing confusion among customers in areas like Vanderhoof, Burns Lake, and Smithers.
The maintenance outage created an “electrical island” for customers west of Prince George, disconnecting them from the main power grid. This change in frequency, from the standard 60 Hz of B.C. Hydro to 60.3 Hz at the Rio Tinto Camano station near Kitimat, affected the operation of clocks and other plugged-in devices in the region.
B.C. Hydro spokesperson Bob Gammer explained that the difference in power frequency caused clocks running on the higher frequency to operate faster than those connected to the main grid. This phenomenon has been observed exclusively in northwest B.C. for years, usually only affecting clocks by a few seconds or minutes.
The reason for this unique occurrence in northwest B.C. is the reliance on a single transmission line to the region. In contrast, other parts of the province have multiple transmission lines, ensuring a steady power supply even if one line goes offline. Consequently, when maintenance is required in northwest B.C., the power is sourced from the backup generating station with the slightly different frequency, leading to the observable time discrepancy.