Residents of Happy Valley-Goose Bay are experiencing a power outage, after teams witnessed arcing on a piece of equipment, Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro spokesperson Jill Pitcher said.
“For safety, the transmission line to [Happy Valley-Goose Bay] was de-energized to investigate,” she wrote in a statement to CBC News on Saturday.
Pitcher said a gas turbine is being brought online to serve customers until power is restored.
In a social media post at 5:45 p.m., N.L. Hydro stated that progress was made toward replacing damaged disconnect switches.
“Power is now expected to be restored in about 2 hours,” wrote N.L. Hydro in the post.
According to outage updates on N.L. Hydro’s website, crews are on-site and determining the next steps for repairs.
The update said an unplanned emergency outage began at about 1 p.m. due to arcing and a possible fire at a terminal station.
All customers in Happy Valley-Goose Bay are affected by the outage, N.L. Hydro said.
Another update said the arcing occurred on one phase of a gang-operated switch on one of the transmission lines.
“[The Energy Control Centre] is also working to start the gas turbine to support as much of [Labrador East’s] load as possible,” N.L. Hydro said in the update.
N.L. Hydro also wrote in a social media post that “we are investigating the issue and will provide more information as it is known. We apologize for the inconvenience today.”
Perry Trimper, the MHA for Lake Melville, said in a social media post that he has learned of arcing and a possible fire on the main power line between Happy Valley-Goose Bay and Muskrat Falls.
“NL Hydro is now proceeding with activating the gas turbine. A crew to do this is being mobilized,” he wrote in his post.
Trimper told CBC News he estimates it could take a few hours to restore power.
Happy Valley-Goose Bay Mayor George Andrews said the weather has been very hot over the past couple of days, and there is currently a fire ban.
Andrews said if the power outage continues, there will be conversations about establishing a cooling centre. However, he said that there are very few places that would have power. They include the Co-op store, which has a generator, and the hospital.
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