Thousands of SaskPower customers affected by Tuesday outages

The reason for the outage, according to McGregor was some wildlife that came into contact with a power line at one of SaskPower’s substations.

“It’s not uncommon,” he said. “Especially in Saskatchewan we do have a lot of birds, a lot of squirrels and other wildlife that sometimes does come into contact with power lines.”

McGregor said wildlife is one of the most common reasons for unplanned power outages, along with weather, and aging infrastructure.

SaskPower’s Twitter account said power was restored for some customers around 8 p.m., but a few rurals still didn’t have power. Then just before 10 p.m., some in the Star City area were without power again. McGregor said due to power being set up in a grid, they’re able to adjust.

“Thankfully in most cases we’re able to do some switching and re-routing of electricity to restore customers quicker while we repair any physical damage that may have happened,” he said.

Meanwhile, earlier in the day, about 1,800 customers were without power in the Zelma, Allan, Viscount, Colonsay, and Plunkett areas for about two hours due to some aging infrastructure. McGregor said that was due to a blown fuse.

He added keeping an eye on SaskPower’s Twitter account is the best way to stay informed on what is happening with outages and that if you have an unexpected outage to call the outage center at 306-310-2220.

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mat.barrett@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @matbarrett6

by Mat Barrett

Thousands of SaskPower customers affected by Tuesday outages

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