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Sarah Mills says parents are probably breathing a sigh of relief as kids head back to school after the Easter break.
After a very long day without power in many areas across the province, the lights came back for just about everyone by Tuesday night, but some areas lost power for a second time Wednesday morning.
Following the massive outages, power was restored to the last lingering areas around Carnduff and Oxbow around 10 p.m. Tuesday.
Jordan Jackle with SaskPower is warning parts of the province could see more issues with power outages while frosty conditions continue.
“We’re not out of the woods yet at this point. I think when you look at a situation – for example a summer storm, once the storm passes you can get out there, assess damage and start fixing things and you’re kind of in the clear,” Jackle explained on the Greg Morgan Morning Show Wednesday.
“Right now there are still areas that have this frost accumulation out there so you could say the storm in some regards is still going so we are certainly being mindful of that.”
Around 10 a.m. on Wednesday Moose Jaw and surrounding communities lost power once again.
10:19 AM: Correction: Crews are working hard to restore power but are unable to provide a restoration time for power in Moose Jaw, Caronport, Avonlea, Belle Plaine, and all surrounding rural areas. #skoutage
— SaskPower (@SaskPower) December 5, 2018
In an update on the blog Wednesday morning, SaskPower said some lower-voltage lines went down overnight, causing new but smaller-scale outages.
The major outages have been caused by frost accumulating on power and transmission lines since last week.
“We didn’t really get a sunny day to really burn that frost off so what it did is it just kept on growing and growing and growing,” Jackle explained.
He said SaskPower crews were dealing with issues throughout the weekend and on Monday
“In terms of transmission lines they were certainly impacted, especially on Monday. I think over a 12-hour shift our crews saw about 40 different line trips on some of the transmission lines in the province,” he said, adding the wind also played a role.
Two major transmission lines in the southeast went down at 9 a.m. Tuesday causing outages across the region. Severe instability in the power grid then caused two power stations to trip off.
“They’re still creating power but really have nowhere to send it so they just shut off. So both of those things really led to the situation that we saw yesterday,” Jackle told the Greg Morgan Morning Show Tuesday.
He said there is still a lot of work to do and the coming days SaskPower will be making efforts to make permanent fixes to some of the structures.
Jackle said hundreds of crews worked as fast and as safely as possible to restore all the power but thanked everyone for their patience in the meantime.
Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Plant without power
The power outages in the Moose Jaw area have also affected the Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Plant.
“While there is no immediate risk to water quality or supply, we are asking residents to conserve water by limiting unnecessary usage like doing laundry at this time,” Pat Wilson, director of water, waste & environmental services for the City of Regina said.
The city has more than enough clean water supplied through reservoirs and wells to last through any power outages. The city said people may notice a difference in water clarity as well water works it’s way through the system, but it is still safe.
