'Unfortunate coincidence': Two Saskatoon power outages not related, city says

(Chad Hills/CTV News)

The city's two major power outages within a week were caused by different reasons, according to Saskatoon Light & Power (SL&P).

"The two incidents appear to be an unfortunate coincidence," a spokesperson for SL&P said.

The first outage happened on Dec. 3, when most of the city lost power for about three hours. SL&P said the outage was caused by a mechanical failure of a switch.

The second outage, on Dec. 10, occurred in two parts — the first, lasting six minutes, and impacting the city's east-central neighbourhood; the second outage was 17 minutes and impacted about 35,000 homes.

SLP said it was caused by the failure of a device called a remote terminal unit.

In an effort to prevent further power outages, the failed unit has been disconnected and its replacement "is being prioritized for the coming weeks," according to SL&P.