Power restored following flashover
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/12/2015 (3874 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Electricity is flowing once again to a number of Westman towns after frost and water vapour led to a widespread power outage this morning.
Manitoba Hydro public affairs officer, Bruce Owen, said the outage was spread between communities from Killarney, in the south, to Forrest, in the north.
"It was a widespread outage," Owen said. "As many as 6,000 people were without power."
Owen said the outage started around 8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. on Sunday when moisture in the form of frost and vapour caused a spark or "flashover" on a line or equipment near Brandon.
That knocked out power in Killarney, Boissevain, Reston, Carroll and about half of Deloraine and parts of Brandon. Souris, Minto and Forrest were also affected.
Hydro workers rerouted power and the weather warmed up to evaporate moisture, and electricity was gradually restored to the communities. There was another fault as power was restored, Owen said, but by 10:15 a.m. it appeared that all customers had power once more.
When asked what the power company was doing to prevent such outages in the future, Owen said a rebuild of the aging hydro system to meet increasing demand is already underway.
Some parts of the Manitoba system are 40 to 50 years old, he said, while residential and commercial areas in and around Brandon have grown.
Improvements are being made to the system to address outages at Brandon University and to meet growth in the city’s west end, Owen said.
He said new Insulators, which aren’t prone to freeze-up, are being considered for the area where Saturday’s flash over occurred.
» ihitchen@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @Ian Hitchen