Whitehorse Daily Star

Latest outage sees estimated 7,825 customers lose power

An unexpected malfunction at the Whitehorse Rapids Dam left thousands of Yukoners without power this morning beginning at 11:25.

By Chuck Tobin on December 11, 2017

An unexpected malfunction at the Whitehorse Rapids Dam left thousands of Yukoners without power this morning beginning at 11:25.

Yukon Energy president Andrew Hall explained early this afternoon a crew was doing some upgrading work in a substation at the dam.

“While the guys were in there working, they had a malfunction on one of the electrical pieces of equipment,” Hall said.

“What that did was cause a transformer to trip out.”

What triggered the piece of electrical equipment to malfunction is still under investigation, Hall said. What occurred is not something the crew would have expected to see.

Stephanie Cunha of ATCO Electric Yukon said approximately 7,825 customers were affected.

Power was lost in the subdivisions of Arkell, Copper Ridge, Granger, Riverdale and half of the downtown area, from the Real Canadian Super Store south to the SS Klondike, she said.

Cunha said the outage also blacked out the south Alaska Highway to Teslin, including Carcross and Tagish.

Teslin, she pointed out, was powered up three minutes later with ATCO’s backup generator.

Restoration began before noon but was still continuing at 12:45 p.m.

Power to parts of the downtown area, for instance, was back on at 11:57 a.m.

Comments (7)

Up 0 Down 1

need competition on Dec 14, 2017 at 8:00 pm

There should NEVER be a monopoly on any type of utility or service of any type in any place as it kills any incentive to do better or innovate. Monopoly = extortion

Up 2 Down 2

Yukoner on Dec 13, 2017 at 5:53 pm

North of 60, you do realize when the power goes out it basically brings the economy of the affected area to a halt as well as effecting such safety items as traffic lights, etc. You may be only slightly inconvenienced in your particular day to day life but a power outage can lead to life threatening situations in certain circumstances as well as causing substantial amounts of damage to customer systems. So yes, any power outage no matter what the length is a big deal and Yukon Energy needs to do much better than their existing mediocre track record concerning power reliability.

Up 3 Down 2

north_of_60 on Dec 13, 2017 at 2:21 pm

Anyone who doesn't like the quality of the service, or the cost, can disconnect and go off-grid to generate their own electricity. Solar and wind are apparently quite fashionable with the ever-complaining, virtue-signaling, climate-change fearing i-Toy crowd.
Our power outages seldom last very long so stop complaining about minor inconveniences.

Up 0 Down 2

Dave on Dec 12, 2017 at 7:37 pm

At home, stick around long enough and you to will tire of the power going off on a regular basis.

Up 2 Down 5

At home in the Yukon on Dec 12, 2017 at 1:54 pm

It was intriguing to see Superstore down, but Save On just down the road doing just fine. I guess them's the breaks.

Not Again, I was in the Bay Area of California about a decade ago. I saw people loose power for 3 to 4 days in a row. I guess they are a third world country too, right. Absolute reliability is extremely expensive. I don't want to have to pay for it.

Up 5 Down 0

ProScience Greenie on Dec 11, 2017 at 3:45 pm

Was nice to see Yukon Energy promptly put out a tweet about the outage and soon after give an update on power restoration ETA. Hope they continue that trend of quick updates.

Up 3 Down 5

Not Again on Dec 11, 2017 at 3:30 pm

Yukon Energy, proudly supplying 3rd world reliability at 1st world rates!

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