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Network issue blamed for power outage in Yk Saturday

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Power was out city-wide for about 40 minutes Saturday morning. NNSL photo

A power outage knocked out electricity in all of Yellowknife Saturday morning.

Power went out around 8:41 a.m. and was fully restored at 9:21 a.m., said Doug Prendergast, spokesperson for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation (NTPC).

The outage was caused by a network communication issue at the Snare Falls Hydro site.

The problem has been identified and resolved, Prendergast said.

The outage came as the Yellowknife region remains under an extreme cold warning from Environment Canada, with the mercury falling to -34 C Saturday morning, or -45 C when factoring in windchill.

No link to Snare Rapids Unit

Prendergast added that Saturday's outage was unrelated to the fact that the Snare Rapids Hydro Unit has been offline for more than two weeks. It is separate from the Snare Falls unit.

An equipment failure in the main generator caused a shutdown in that unit earlier in February.

A significant amount of work has to be done on the unit before it can go back up, which could take the rest of the winter, Prendergast said.