Yellowknife, Ndilǫ and Dettah are currently experiencing an extended power outage that began at approximately 5:30 pm ET this evening. It is unclear how many households have been impacted and how long it will take for electrical power to be restored.
The communities are amid temperatures dipping into the minus 30 zone with the windchill
At about 9:30 pm, crews reported that a mechanical equipment issue has been isolated as the cause.
“The investigation has isolated the electrical equipment that failed and removed it from service. Power restoration has begun and we are restoring power using a combination of hydro and diesel generation,” said Northwest Territories Power Corporation officials in a social media post.
Earlier this evening, the outage was traced to a substation by crews on scene.
“The investigation has identified the specific area of the substation where the fault occurred. We are starting the process of beginning to restore power using a combination of hydro and diesel generation. The restoration process will likely take longer than usual,” officials from NTPC posted on social media at about 8 pm.
Shortly after the power outage began, NTPC officials said that the issue was rooted in the substation and was caused by “wildlife interference.”
“Crews continue to investigate the cause of the outage. The cause is not determined but we believe it is wildlife interference in the substation. This same issue is making it difficult to restore power using diesel generation. Timeline for power restoration is currently unknown but could be an hour or longer.”
The outage coincided with the opening night of the Ice Age to Information Age exhibit at the Prince of Wales Cultural Centre in Yellowknife. While the opening night was cut short on time, the show attracted over 200 attendees who stayed until the museum staff had to lock up early due to the outage. The mystery continues as the city remained covered in almost complete darkness.
Alas, by about 9:30 pm the power returned to the many of the buildings, homes and city streets of the downtown core.
North Now reached out to NTPC for more details on the cause of the outage and what steps are being taken to address the issue, and will share more information when it is available
Story Update Feb. 6:
As NTPC crews worked to restore power at their plants, Naka Power co-ordinated to distribute the power to affected customers within their distribution zones.
Doug Prendergast with NPTC confirmed that the power outage began at 5:26 pm affecting all communities in the Snare Zone. While electric power was restored to Behchokǫ̀ by 5:52PM using diesel generation from the plant at Frank Channel, the outage continued between 3 to 5 hours in the other affected communities.
“Power began to be restored to customers at approximately 8:20PM with the final customers having their power restored at approximately 10:20PM. Power was restored using a combination of hydro and diesel generation,” said Prendergast.
Crews pinpointed a “connection” issue as the root of the problem, located within the substation.
“The cause of the outage was a failed electrical connection at the Jackfish substation, which also made it challenging to restore power with the diesel generators at Jackfish,” said Prendergast.
On Friday morning, NTPC crews have continued to assess the situation.
“Further inspection of the area within the substation related to yesterday’s outage will occur today to help determine what follow-up work may need to be done,” said Prendergast.
