Yukon Energy caught off guard by power demand at -38 C, causing outages in Whitehorse
'Sometimes you get surprised by how much the load is every year,' says Yukon Energy president Andrew Hall
Yukon Energy says it was caught off guard by the high energy demand in Whitehorse on Monday evening — and that's what caused an hours-long blackout in some parts of town.
The territory is in the middle of a cold snap, and the temperature in Whitehorse was around –38 C when the outages happened at about 5 p.m. Some city residents were in the dark for more than four hours.
"It was a case of us getting caught a little bit out, in terms of, you know, what level of demand we were seeing from the north end of town," said Andrew Hall, Yukon Energy's president, on Tuesday.
"Sometimes you get surprised by how much the load is every year."
Hall blames the outage on its Takhini substation, where heavy power demand "tripped off" a transformer. He says the transformer hadn't been at the proper setting.
"We hadn't anticipated, necessarily, that level of demand," Hall said.
"So what we've done now is we've increased the set-point or the setting on the transformer. So you know, we're not expecting the same kind of event to happen again."
The outage affected areas on the north side of Whitehorse, including Crestview, Kulan, the Hot Springs and Whistle Bend.
The growing Whistle Bend neighbourhood is Whitehorse's newest subdivision and many of the homes are heated by electricity. Homes there were among the last to see their power restored on Monday night.
Hall says the utility had alerted Yukon's Emergency Measures Organization (EMO) during the power outage. He says EMO would have become involved if it had lasted much longer.
Yukon's extreme cold spell is expected to last through this week, with temperatures expected to stay below –30 C until at least Christmas Day. Hall is urging residents to do their part to reduce demand, for example, by not running large appliances like dryers or dishwashers during peak hours.
Much of Yukon has been under an extreme cold warning since the weekend.
Nonetheless, some residents have found ways to stay positive:
Today, it's -40ºC/-40ºF in the Yukon wilderness around my cabin. Nature is calm, frigid, cold and utterly stunning. The air is freezing but still very refreshing for the lungs. In this natural environment, I danced to create warmth. I'm dispatching the good vibe to the world. <a href="https://t.co/t16l62yWf0">pic.twitter.com/t16l62yWf0</a>
—@GurdeepPandherWith files from Leonard Linklater