Saskatoon Light & Power (SL&P) dealt with a widespread power outage Monday. City officials said power was restored to most areas within 42 minutes.
“It all started at 2:33 p.m. CT when a large poplar tree branch fell onto one of our main very high-voltage transmission lines near Taylor Street and Preston Avenue,” SL&P director Trevor Bell said.
“The branch contact tripped out the system on one of the two major lines serving the city. It caused power to go out at 18 of our 23 substations. This affected the east side, north end, the northern portion of downtown and some other areas.”
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Bell said crews responded immediately and trimmed back tree branches. While they worked, SL&P restored power to much of downtown Saskatoon within 14 minutes.
“Once it was safe to do so, we started re-energizing the rest of the city,” Bell said.
“The last few customers were restored within an hour by 3:33 p.m.”
The City of Saskatoon website is back up and running.
Staff will investigate why an off-site back-up system for city hall failed to support the website during the outage.