SaskPower Tells Northerners To “Bear With Us”
Thursday, March 13, 2008 at 14:38
SaskPower officials are asking residents of northeast Saskatchewan to be patient with them, following a prolonged power outage in the region yesterday.
Communities north of Weyakwin all the way to Southend were without power and running water for about eight hours yesterday — closing schools and businesses.
The outage was caused by heavy wet snow that caused two broken crossarms in an isolated location just south of La Ronge.
SaskPower spokesman Larry Christie says this isn’t the only region in the province to be served by a single line — but he admits the current infrastructure is no longer adequate.
Christie adds a transmission line replacement project in the area is well underway — noting part of the line has already been rebuilt to the Timber Cove switching station, and preliminary work on another 70 kms north of Timber Cove is now complete.
He says construction on that section will get underway this year, while the remaining 70 kms of line to La Ronge will be in place within a “few years”.
Christie says the new line will be better protected from outages when it’s in place — because it will be made of sturdier material and will be situated above the tree line.