Communication main focus of review into December power outages in the Yukon

Communications was the focus of a recent debrief following last month's power outages that affected several parts of the Yukon during an extreme cold snap.

Residents in parts of Dawson City, Pelly Crossing, and Whitehorse lost power at different times over the course of one week in December.

In Pelly Crossing and Dawson City, outages were the result of equipment failures, according to electric utility providers Atco Electric and the Yukon Energy Corporation.

In Whitehorse, a surge in energy demand caused a breaker to trip at Yukon Energy's Takhini substation as temperatures neared -40 C. The outage lasted more than four hours in some parts of the city.

Communication with EMO

The review, which took place on Thursday, focused mostly on the Dec. 19 outage in Whitehorse, with representatives from the city, the Yukon Energy Corporation, Atco Electric and the Yukon's Emergency Measures Organization (EMO).

Julia Duchesne, communications analyst for Yukon's Emergency Measures Organization (EMO), said additional meetings were taking place with representatives from the other affected communities, but added the outages outside Whitehorse were also discussed at Thursday's meeting.

The review focused primarily on communications, specifically between utility companies and responders such as EMO.

Duchesne said EMO wasn't needed for support during the outages, but it was in contact with the affected communities and with utility companies.

"We have on-call communications when needed, so just making sure that those resources are available, and that communities know that they're available," she said.

Andrew Hall, president and CEO of the Yukon Energy Corporation, said in an interview it can be challenging to coordinate communications during outages in Whitehorse because there are two electric utility companies servicing the city: Yukon Energy and Atco Electric.

"You've got two utilities involved in the restoration, getting the power back," Hall said. 

"We clarified that a little bit," he added. "You know, which utility, if it's an outage in Whitehorse, takes the lead."

Need to be prepared for power demand

Hall also noted that as Whitehorse grows, it's important to prepare for surges in demand like the one on Dec. 19. He said while there was no shortage of energy supply, the system wasn't prepared for such high energy demand. 

"In areas of town where there's a whole lot of construction going on, like Whistle Bend, we need to be very, very aware of how many extra houses got built during the summer that we can expect to see show up as load on our system," Hall said.

CGC not open as warming centre

The City of Whitehorse did not open the Canada Games Centre as a warming centre during the outage.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the city said it had started initiating plans to do so, but power was restored before those plans were put into action.