SaskPower inspects meters for ground-shifting damage

SaskPower continues to look for Regina homes that may be affected by the ground-shifting which has caused five meters to catch fire. SaskPower has inspected about 600 meters as of Tuesday morning. There are around 30 people out doing inspections daily.

Around 80 meters had to be repaired before the wires were completely damaged. There have been about 30 instances where an outage occurred due to the wiring burning out.

Kevin Shwing, director of health and safety, said people should keep an eye on the ground around their home and their meters.

“If you see the ground shifting, settling down by the house and there’s a big gap, that’s an indication that it could be grabbing the underground wire and pulling it away from the power box,” Shwing said.

He added people should watch to see if their power box is tilting or getting pulled away from the home. A person could also see an exposed power box.

SaskPower said they are investigating the areas that see significant ground shifting, have older homes and has underground service first before going elsewhere in the city. This includes Uplands, Glencairn and Normanview.

“The older installations had a smaller power box and with that smaller box is less slack with the wire.”

Shwing said they have seen meters affected by ground-shifting before but not to this magnitude.

SaskPower said the Crown corporation will cover the costs of the repairs. Depending on the extent of the damage, costs could be between $1,000 to $2,000.