Technical issue blamed as cause for 5-hour power outage in Elmwood Tuesday

WINNNIPEG — A breaker failure is being blamed for an extended power outage that left more than 1,000 customers in the dark in Elmwood Tuesday.

Manitoba Hydro said staff were working on a project to transfer customers to a new substation when an old breaker blew, delaying the 30-minute procedure.

“We had a catastrophic failure with some equipment at rover, which was not anticipated. It was a breaker,” said Scott Powell, manager of public affairs for Manitoba Hydro.

Share this on X Click to share quote on X: "We had a catastrophic failure with some equipment at rover, which was not anticipated. It was a breaker," said Scott Powell, manager of public affairs for Manitoba Hydro.

The breaker was more than 100 years old, and Powell said when it failed, it took a lot of time and staff to fix.

“We had to do some major configuration to bring those customers back on.”

Josh Walls and his two daughters were forced to leave their Talbot Avenue home after five hours with no power.

RELATED: Hundreds left in frigid temperatures after planned half-hour Manitoba Hydro outage lasts hours

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“It was the worst day of my life, for sure,” said Walls.

The temperature dropped within an hour, said Walls. At one point, he said his daughters were huddled up on the couch, shivering.

“Looking at them shivering on the couch with blankets on top, as being a father, that’s not what you want to see.”

Walls said he wasn’t told what was going on, and there were no updates online explaining why the fix was taking so long.

Powell said crews were carefully trying to diagnose the problem before releasing any information.

“It’s part of the risk when you’re converting from old equipment and putting people on to a more reliable source of supply,” said Powell.

Manitoba Hydro has tips online to show customers what to do when an outage like this happens.

Walls said he will be preparing himself in case something like this happens again, with more outages scheduled this winter.

“I think I might go to the store and get kerosene heaters, something to keep the house warm in case this happens again.”