For at least three straight days, parts of Regina have experienced power outages.
The power went out at the Legislative and T.C. Douglas buildings Wednesday morning at 8 a.m.
SaskPower crews had power restored by 8:22 a.m. but on Wednesday afternoon, power went out once again in some areas on the city’s north end.
Regina’s Westhill, Fairways West, Whitmore Park and Normanview neighbourhoods experienced power failures earlier in the week.
SaskPower said there are three factors that cause the lights to go out. One-third of the time it’s the weather, one-third of the time it’s wildlife or trees, and the remainder is caused by problems with infrastructure.
“The whole country is experiencing issues with infrastructure, ours is no different and on average our reliability is about midscale across the country,” said Mike Marsh, SaskPower’s CEO.
“We continue to invest money and will continue to invest money forever on infrastructure replacement.”
SaskPower has committed almost $18.9 million in 2019 for infrastructure upgrades.
The upgrades include animal guards wherever it’s possible to set them up.
“You have to appreciate that there are over 80,000 pieces of transformers on poles around this province and our teams are working at it over time and over the next few years,” Marsh said.
“We hope to get much of them covered with wildlife protection devices.”
SaskPower says upgrades are constantly being worked on in residential areas in the city and the downtown core.
For information on planned power outages, follow SaskPower’s Twitter.