Day three of a community-wide power outage saw power fully restored to the community of Ulukhatok, according to the latest announcement by N.W.T.’s Power Corp at about 4 p.m today.
The winter storm that took out power for over two days, forcing community members to take shelter at an emergency warming station, was forecasted by Environment Canada. NTPC advised of its potential impact about one day before the full community outage occurred.
Over the weekend, NTPC arranged a charter flight for crews to arrive as the community waited for power to be restored.
Yesterday evening, NTPC reported that while power had been restored to most of the community, heavy winds were threatening to cause another full outage before morning.
“NTPC’s crew was able to restore power to the majority of the community by 7:45PM. They continued to work on the distribution lines and connections however the winds are picking up and it is not safe for the work to continue. They will restart work in the morning,” said NTPC yesterday in a social media post at about 10: 30 p.m. MT.
The power outage began Saturday in the Arctic hamlet amid a blizzard with freezing temperatures dropping down to minus 15 degrees with the windshield, the community set up a warming shelter overnight.
With a number of power lines down since most of the day Saturday, the community awaited for crews scheduled to arrive Sunday evening just before 5 p.m. MT.
“A line crew and electrician are scheduled to arrive in the community via air charter at approximately 4:40 pm. They will complete an inspection to assess the extent of damage to the distribution system before starting power restoration efforts. Power has already been restored in parts of the community but other areas are still without electricity — the line crew and electrician are necessary to complete work in areas with downed powerlines,” said reps with NTPC in a post at about 12: 30 p.m. MT. on Sunday.
The blizzard anticipated since Friday, made it difficult for crews to get in, according to reports from NTPC.
“NTPC is working hard to restore power but the storm is making it very difficult to do so. We are continuing our efforts to charter a plane to get a crew into the community but we have so far been unsuccessful. Once the winds drop, we will get extra resources into Hamlet of Ulukhaktok as soon as we can. The local plant operator is trying to restore power by isolating sections of the distribution system that have been damaged by the storm.”
In mid-October, community-wide power outages took place in Fort McPherson, Hay River, Enterprise and Kátł’odeeche First Nation within a three day period.
The Fort McPherson outage took place amid temperatures hovering between freezing conditions and saw children sent home from school.
A representative with NTPC told North Now that an investigation found the Fort McPherson outage was likely caused by expired batteries that were over 10 years old.
According to the report by NTPC, the South Slave outage was caused by a fallen tree.
Blizzard conditions seem to have triggered the system-wide breakdown in Ulukhatok
On Friday afternoon, NTPC posted on their social media site that Environment Canada had issued a Blizzard warning and travel advisory for the area, due to near-zero visibility.
“NTPC is monitoring the situation to ensure we are prepared for these challenging weather conditions. If outages occur, crews will be dispatched as soon as it is possible to safely do so.”
North Now reached out to the Hamlet of Ulukhatok and NTPC.
Sunday afternoon, Doug Prendergast of NTPC told North Now that the power outage was caused by the heavy winds of the blizzard.
“The outage in Ulukhaktok was caused by a blizzard that saw wind gusts exceeding 100 kilometres per hour. These winds did damage to buildings in the community as well as to the local electricity distribution system. Debris from a nearby building brought down a key powerline and other sections of line were dislodged by the winds.”
Prendergast said that the cause of the outage is not related to aging infrastructure.
“There were no issues with our generation capacity in Ulukhaktok – it is a completely different situation than what occurred in Fort McPherson last month. The winter storm and the associated winds were responsible for this outage, not aging infrastructure,” said Prendergast.
Prendergast said that the company is working closely with the community.
“We have been in regular contact with local leaders in Ulukhaktok throughout this event. Power was partially restored earlier (Sunday) and a line crew and electrician will arrive in the community later (Sunday) afternoon to address remaining issues.”
Sunday, at about 4:30 p.m., NTPC reported that Sachs Harbour began to experience intermittent power outages. The company attributed the outage to winter storm conditions.
“Customers are experiencing intermittent power as a result of the winter storm. Unfortunately, this is likely to continue until the storm passes and the high winds fade.”
Environment Canada had not issued winter storm alerts for Sachs Harbour at the time of the intermittent outages. The region’s forecasted weather included winds gusting up to 70 km per hour and lows of minus 19, with a wind chill near minus 33 degrees.
