Several days of intermittent power outages in Keno City have left both territorial energy providers searching for a solution to keep the community's power running permanently during the coldest, darkest time of year.

In Keno City power is provided by both Yukon Electrical Company Ltd. and Yukon Energy, the territory's two energy suppliers.

Yukon Electrical distributes power to the community, which is supplied by a Yukon Energy transmission line, running from the Mayo hydro facility through the community of Elsa. There are about 20 people in Keno City and about a dozen in Elsa, all of whom experienced extensive power losses over the weekend and through to restoration at 9:30 this morning. Yukon Energy also has two customers between Mayo and Elsa, who experienced shorter outages.

A problem with the transmission line, probably between Mayo and Elsa, is the most likely cause of the recent losses, said Janet Patterson, a spokesperson for Yukon Energy.

The first outages occurred on New Year's Day.

The initial loss lasted about 12 hours before a backup generator was provided by Yukon Electrical. The generator malfunctioned after refueling and power was once again lost on Monday, this time for about 17 hours.

"Our concern has been for the residents,” said Dwight Redden, general manager of Yukon Electrical. "It was -16 today and -25 yesterday. We have been in contact with the fire chief in Keno City and they are working hard to ensure the communities are safe and that municipal systems are functioning.”

Both companies say they are working hard to address the problem and think the worst has now passed.

"We are working to determine the root causes of the outages,” said Redden.

The outage was probably caused by heavy snowfall in the area over the last few days, said Patterson. Yesterday, Yukon Energy identified an area along the transmission line where snow appeared to have fallen off of a conductor. They will be flying the line today and performing tests to determine the source of the outages, she said.

While they wait for a solution, residents of Keno City have become increasingly frustrated with the situation.

"We have been camping out,” Robert Wagner, an area resident, told the Star this morning. "It's like living in the bush. We appreciate the workers who are out there in -25 trying to get us out of this, but the system needs to change.”

Wagner, who lives in Keno City with his wife, Insa Schultenkotter, says that incidents like this have become too common in their community — about 10 times since the beginning of December.

"We have a joke around here that Yukon Energy calls us to tell us when the power is going to be on,” said Wagner. "You have to be alert at all times. You don't know what kind of power you are going to get and for how long.”

They also worry for the community's more vulnerable residents.

"There are older people up here who are using electrical heat and when it gets down to -30 we begin to worry about them,” said Schultenkotter. "I hope they make it to a neighbour's.”

Yukon Energy has provided a generator to the community, which has brought temporary support while the publicly owned corporation continues to search for the source of the outages.

The mill site in Keno owned by Alexco Resource has a small back-up generator, capable of supplying heat and energy to their facilities but unable to keep the mill running.

"We have also been in contact with people in the community and we are working as hard as we can right now to keep the power on,” said Patterson.

Wagner and Schultenkotter say flaws in the transmission system need to be ironed out permanently so that extensive outages can be avoided in the future.

"One of the issues has been that everything is centralized in Whitehorse,” said Wagner. "To bring in a backup generator you have to drive it up from Whitehorse, which takes nine hours, so you lose power for nine hours automatically. We think they could come up with a better backup system, because really, to lose power for two whole days is unacceptable.”

Both Yukon Electrical and Yukon Energy say they would like to have the source of the outages determined by today, but are not making any promises. Yukon Energy, however, maintains there is no relationship between the opening of the new Mayo B power plant and the recent outages.