Skip to content

Underground cable causes Barrhead-area power outage

About 3,800 residents were without electricity for up to two hours Jan. 15
FortisAlberta
Around 3,800 customers in the Barrhead area were without power for a few hours Jan. 15. FortisAlberta says the outage was caused by a fault with an undergrorund cable.

BARRHEAD - A large swath of customers in the Barrhead area, as well as small parts of Westlock County, experienced a power outage around 4:40 p.m. Jan. 15.

FortisAlberta communications manager Alana Antonelli said the problem was caused by a fault with an underground cable. At the time of the outage, it was -42 C.

The outage impacted the entire Town of Barrhead, as well as Neerlandia, Vega, Bloomsbury, Tiger Lily, Manola and Freedom in the County of Barrhead and unspecified parts of Westlock County. In total, Antonelli said about 3,800 customers were impacted.

Power was restored via a phased re-energization of impacted areas, starting with the Town of Barrhead.

Antonelli noted about half of its customers had their electricity restored by 6 p.m., mostly in the aTown of Barrhead, while outlying regions had their power restored by 6:20 p.m.

"We would like to thank our customers for their patience," she said. "We understand how much electricity means and important it is for our customers, especially in this frigid weather we are all experiencing. That is why we have crews ready and prepared to deal with situations like this as soon as they occur."

The outage follows a week where FortisAlberta and other electricity providers, including the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) which oversees the province's electrical grid, have been asking Albertans to reduce their power consumption. Power consumption across the province has increased dramatically during an Alberta-wide cold snap which has seen the entire province being issued with an extreme cold warning.

On Jan. 14, in a tweet, AESO stated the province had set a new peak electricity consumption record of 11,698 megawatts.

The Barrhead municipalities did their best to keep residents informed using the Barrhead Area Regional Crime Coalition (BARCC) alert system.

BARCC is a partnership between Woodlands County, the Town of Barrhead and the County of Barrhead, as well as the Barrhead RCMP and Rural Crime Watch.

It was formed in the spring of 2018, in part due to discussions Peace River-Westlock MP Arnold Viersen had with all parties in around initiatives to combat rural crime.

As part of the initiative, BARCC has set up a software-based system that allows the municipalities, Rural Crime Watch and the RCMP broadcast messages via automated phone calls, e-mails, and texts, about items of public interest.


Barry Kerton

About the Author: Barry Kerton

Barry Kerton is the managing editor of the Barrhead Leader, joining the paper in 2014. He covers news, municipal politics and sports.
Read more



Comments

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks