Planned power outage hits snag; several neighbourhoods affected

CTV Saskatoon: Residents left in the dark What was supposed to be a planned three-hour power outage early Thursday morning turned into much more for residents of Saskatoon and area.

A scheduled power outage hit a snag Thursday as several Saskatoon residents were without electricity for much of the morning and numerous unplanned outages were reported across the city.

An outage was planned for Saskatoon’s northeast area as well as Martensville and Warman between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. SaskPower was hoping to replace an old power line with a new high voltage line.

Complications with the installation, however, led to a significant delay restoring power and numerous power disruptions in neighbourhoods not scheduled to be affected by the outage, according to a SaskPower spokesperson Tyler Hopson.

Power was not restored to affected Saskatoon areas until 12 p.m.

“It was restored for a short period around 7:30 a.m. this morning, but that’s when (crews) discovered some complications,” Hopson said. “Normally these planned outages aren’t anywhere near this complicated.”

The company’s Twitter account said around 8 a.m. that crews were energizing a new high voltage line and that outages were required in some neighbourhoods as crews switched power to backup sources.

The planned outage was scheduled to affect about 500 customers in Saskatoon’s River Heights, Lawson Heights, Silverwood, North Industrial, Hudson Bay Industrial and Marquis Industrial neighbourhoods. However, power disruptions also occurred in Stonebridge, Willow Grove, Evergreen, Rosewood, Lakeview, Briarwood, the Willows, and even outside Saskatoon in Corman Park.

Most customers in Martensville and Warman were only affected by minor disruptions following the scheduled outage, Hopson said.