Latest power failure under investigation

The cause of this morning’s power outage – the third in less than a week – was still under investigation at press time early this afternoon.

The cause of this morning’s power outage – the third in less than a week – was still under investigation at press time early this afternoon.

Yukon Energy spokeswoman Janet Patterson said late this morning staff were heading out to the Takhini substation on the North Klondike Highway to help try to understand what happened.

Power went out at 8:24 a.m. for about 4,000 customers in Riverdale, Porter Creek, north of Porter Creek along the Mayo Road, including the MacPherson subdivision, and in sections of Faro, but everybody was back on in 20 minutes or sooner, Patterson said.

The latest outage was somewhat unusual in that it began as a brief brownout, before the lights went out completely, say those whose power went off.

“It was like the system was saying, ‘Oh, we have to hold on, oh, we have to hold, and oh, forget it, we can’t do it anymore,’” Patterson said.

She said Faro was back up in 13 minutes, Porter Creek and north in 14 minutes and Riverdale in 20 minutes.

There was a major power outage last Wednesday morning that occurred while staff were conducting routine maintenance at the Whitehorse Rapids Dam.

Another outage occurred last Friday morning for 540 customers in a section of Riverdale when a garbage truck got tangled with some phone wires on Teslin Road, causing the electrical wires to shake and touch.