Southern Saskatchewan hit by massive blackout
The widespread power outage happened around 4 a.m. By 10 a.m. power to most regions had been restored, said Larry Christie, a spokesman for SaskPower, the government-run utility provider.
“Electrical system instability” created by the storm in the midwestern U.S. caused the generating units at two power stations in Saskatchewan and several other transmission facilities in locations across the province to go offline, said Christie. The SaskPower system is connected to the same power grid as the one affected by the storm in the U.S.
Christie couldnÂ’t estimate how many customers were affected by the power outage but confirmed it hit large portions of Regina, Moose Jaw, North Battleford, Yorkton, Prince Albert and many rural areas. Most residents in Saskatoon were spared, Christie said.
“We continue to work to try to understand what took place here in Saskatchewan and whether or not everything functioned perfectly,” said Christie.
SaskPower serves more than 441,000 customers and operates about 154,269 km of power transmission lines.
Related News
Wyoming wind boost for US utility
WYOMING - US company Black Hills Energy has received regulatory approval to increase the size of its Corriedale wind farm in Wyoming to over 52MW from 40MW previously.
The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission approved the additional 12.5MW capacity after the Wyoming Public Service Commission determined the boost was within commission rules.
Black Hills Energy will install five additional turbines, raising the project cost to $79m from $57m.
Corriedale will be built near Cheyenne and is expected to be placed in service in late 2020.
Black Hills said that during the initial subscription period for its Renewable Ready program, applications of interest from…
