An ultimate showdown between humans and ravens for control of the North was postponed on Friday as the NWT Power Corporation retracted its claim that “wildlife contact” caused Thursday’s lengthy outage in Yellowknife.
The power corporation initially suggested the four-hour blackout occurred because of “interference” from wildlife – usually a phrase that implies ravens were involved.
However, on Friday, NTPC said the problem had since been identified as “a failed electrical connection within the Jackfish substation.” No raven at fault.
More: This is what makes electrical substations so attractive to wildlife
“We still need to investigate further to determine why that electrical connection failed,” said NTPC spokesperson Doug Prendergast.
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“Our original assumption that wildlife interference caused the outage was based on past history but does not appear to be the case on this occasion.”
Meanwhile, the City of Yellowknife told residents to hire steaming contractors if they’re having water problems on Friday.
In a post to Meta’s channels, the city said there was no issue with municipal water systems and the fault likely lay on residents’ properties.
“The City is aware that some residents are currently without water following last night’s power outage. In some homes, the outage interrupted power to water circulation pumps, which may have led to frozen private water service lines,” the city stated.
“Residents who are experiencing frozen service lines will need to contact a steaming contractor to have the line safely thawed and ensure their circulation pump is functioning properly.”
