Cause of 14-hour power outage in Fort Resolution, N.W.T., still unknown: NTPC

Leaders in Fort Resolution, N.W.T., say they have concerns about the response to an extended power outage in the community on Saturday.

"People are really upset," said Deninu Kųę́ First Nation Chief Louis Balsillie of the outage, which left some residents without power for roughly 14 hours.

The outage began around 1 p.m. on Saturday, with power fully restored at approximately 3 a.m. Sunday.

His biggest concern is with how long the repair took. 

He said he wants to know why the crew from Yellowknife that eventually restored power drove 150 kilometres to Fort Resolution from Hay River, instead of flying directly to the community.

'Normally a seamless process': NTPC

Northwest Territories Power Corporation (NTPC) spokesperson Doug Prendergast told CBC that, as of Wednesday, NTPC still didn't know the underlying cause of the Saturday outage.

NTPC has previously said the outage was caused by a voltage fluctuation that happened while a generator was being switched out. Prendergast said the corporation doesn't know why this happened.

"Generator switch-outs are very common. They happen all the time," he said. "It's normally a seamless process from the customer end."

He said this is part of the reason NTPC decided to proceed with the generator switch on such a cold day.

Investigation continues

Prendergast said NTPC is continuing to investigate the cause of the outage. It will also have a debrief to go over its overall response — including why repair crews took such a long route to Fort Resolution.

He told CBC that at the time, NTPC decided to fly the repair crew to Hay River instead of directly to Fort Resolution because of uncertainty about whether the airport was operational. 

But he said NTPC did learn that the Fort Resolution airport was operational before crews flew to Hay River, but decided not to change its plan. He said it will "probably" discuss that decision in the debrief. 

"We made the best decisions we could based on the information we had at hand," Prendergast said.