Four power outages in Canmore over the past couple of months do not represent a pattern, according to officials at FortisAlberta.
The most recent outage occurred Tuesday (July 28) morning at 10:15 a.m. and lasted almost an hour, with 7,500 customers losing power, according to Fortis spokesperson Jennifer MacGowan. She said a further 118 customers were without power until 1:10 p.m. while repairs were made.
MacGowan said the power outage was related to a fire in a switching cubicle, although the exact cause was not known by the Outlook’s deadline, she indicated there is no pattern to the outages.
“Unfortunately, there is no pattern, or a consistent circumstance that has caused these outages,” MacGowan said in an email. “The other two distribution system-related outages (FortisAlberta) were a result of a lightning strike and a gopher getting into a switching cubicle, both instances beyond our control.
“We fully recognize how frustrating this can be for our customers in Canmore and we continue to do everything in our power to get electricity service restored as safely and quickly as possible.”
The fourth outage was related to AtlaLink infrastructure and a squirrel gaining access to the area and completing an electrical current while on the power lines.
While there is no pattern to the cause of the outages, Canmore’s municipal streets and roads department were quick to respond to the situation with signage in intersections to help with traffic control.
Manager of public works Andreas Comeau said with four outages in the recent past, and the possibility that outages can last upwards of three hours, staff are quick to respond with the signage.
“We have done this now a few times already and we know what needs to be done, where it is and how to set it up,” he said.
