SaskPower sent crews Tuesday night to repair a massive power outage in Regina that affected several central neighbourhoods and areas to the north.
The Crown corporation confirmed Wednesday morning that the power for all customers has been restored.
Scott McGregor, SaskPower spokesperson said that a pole fire took out the power for most of the north end residents during the first outage of the day yesterday.
“We typically see it in the springtime, but with the freezing rain, it kind of made the conditions right for a pole fire,” said McGregor.
Winter causes a buildup of dirt and grime on the poles and lines. Humidity in the air, this time the cause of freezing rain, can cause an electrical current through the line and straight to the power pole, generating heat, and lighting it on fire.
This caused several outages in Regina around 4:00 p.m. Tuesday.
The province’s most recent low-pressure system brought volumes of freezing rain to the southern region of the province.
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“It’s almost as if the low-pressure system was travelling along Highway 1,” said meteorologist Sara Hoffman with Environment Canada. “In Regina, the airport reported six hours of freezing rain, so we had a number of reports not just from the communities and cities, but from highway reports as well.”
The system developed in southern Alberta and moved eastward into the lower part of Saskatchewan with some warm winds, creating the energy to bring freezing rain.
“When you have the precipitation freezing the lines and then winds picking up, it usually causes line gallop,” said McGregor. “Winds blow so strongly that the lines swing back and forth, coming in contact with one another, or break the crossarms that they are attached to.”
SaskPower confirmed that the second set of power outages seen around 8:30 p.m. were a cause of line gallop by freezing rain, and affected approximately 17, 500 customers.
Affected neighbourhoods were Cathedral, Centre Square, Crescents, Coventry Place, Downtown, McNab Park, Normanview, Normanview West, Regent Park and Rosemont.
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