Households in the community of Wekweètì are facing a power outage. Naka officials said crews are on site working to restore power. According to reports, the outage began at about 2 pm this afternoon with about 50 per cent of households impacted.
It is unclear when power will be restored, but according to a social media post, officials said they anticipate it will be restored tonight.
Naka reported that the power outage is affecting about half of households in Wekweètì.
“As of 3PM today, the outage in Wekweètì is still ongoing. Based on the latest map, about half of the community remains without power (red zone), while some areas are energized (green zone),” said officials in social media post this afternoon.
Naka officials posted an update that a restoration crew is en route and is flying in to make needed repairs. They reported the delay is due to booked flights as crews had to await an available flight into the community. The community is currently experiencing minus 25 degrees temperatures.
Company officials said that they aimed to have the power back up by tonight.
“We’re targeting full restoration by approximately 8:00 PM, provided no major issues arise during the repair process. We’ll continue to monitor progress closely and share updates as they become available,” said reps in the post today.
Yesterday and on Jan. 12, the community experienced brief power outages lasting under one hour, but today’s outage has lasted several hours.
North Now reached out for more details and was provided updates through email.
“The crew didn’t arrive there until late this evening and are still working on restoration,” said officials.
Naka crews reported that they continue to work on repairs and have not determined the cause of the outage yet. Officials added that they will continue to provide updates on social media once power is restored.
As of 10 pm this evening, officials said that crews continue to work on addressing the outage.
Within one week, multiple power outages have impacted other communities, including three outages affecting Hay River, Enterprise and Kátł’odeeche First Nation. The exact cause of the outage on Jan. 9 remains unknown
“No repairs were needed as nothing broke. Generating units sometimes trip off and the exact cause remains unknown,” said Doug Prendergast of NTPC.
The outage that happened on Jan. 13 was attributed to a large generators at the Hay River plant that “tripped off” while a another smaller unit was being brought online.
