Security Breach Rocks Big Canadian Power Producer

Canada's biggest electricity producer said it had stepped up security at its plants after a television report showed a journalist wondering unchallenged into the core of its biggest generating station.

"What I saw is not acceptable. We must act quickly and properly," Andre Caille, president and chief executive of Hydro-Quebec, which is owned by the Quebec provincial government, told reporters.

Hydro-Quebec said it had begun 24-hour security patrols at most of its electric power stations as well as at major transmission posts. It also halted public visits to its generating installations.

In a report broadcast on February 15, a team from Radio-Canada, the French-language service of CBC television, wandered around the Robert Bourassa hydro-electric plant in the remote James Bay area, and at the Manic-5 plant on the Manicouagan River, north of the St. Lawrence River, without being confronted by security officers or any other personnel.

The plants, linked to a series of giant dams, supply the Quebec power grid. Electricity is also exported to the northeastern United States.

At the immense 5,616-megawatt Robert Bourassa generating station, Radio-Canada journalist Christian Latreille and a camera person drove almost a kilometer down a tunnel to gain entry to the vast control platform for 16 turbines.

Television images showed Latreille walking unchallenged to control panels.

"We could have cut power to 1.2 million Quebecers," Latreille said during a Radio-Canada broadcast.

Hydro-Quebec's Caille acknowledged he was perplexed that the Radio-Canada team was able to penetrate the generating stations just days after an internal security audit showed no major problems.

Thierry Vandal, president of Hydro-Quebec's production unit, said the Vermont Joint Owners, a group of Vermont utilities that buy power from Hydro-Quebec, had contacted the utility to seek assurances on the security measures. The Quebec government asked the provincial police to examine security measures at Hydro-Quebec. "I was fairly surprised to see in the report that one can circulate so easily at Hydro-Quebec installations," Quebec Premier Jean Charest told reporters.

"That raises a number of questions. The government expects Hydro-Quebec to respond to those questions," he added.

Charest said his government considered the security issue important, especially in view of heightened concerns following the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked airliner attacks against the United States.

"Up to Sept. 11, the main issue between Quebec and the United States, Canada and the United States, was trade. Since then, it's security," he said.

Hydro-Quebec tried in vain on Tuesday to obtain a court injunction to block the Radio-Canada broadcast, saying it could threaten security at the power stations.

Caille said that following the broadcast, there were several attempts by individuals to gain access to Hydro-Quebec facilities.

But in acknowledging security problems at Hydro-Quebec, Caille considerably softened the tone he used on Tuesday night, when he accused Radio-Canada of working in collusion with a utility employee to gain access to the Robert Bourassa station.

Latreille denied that his reporting team had colluded with anyone at Hydro-Quebec.