Residents of Faro, Yukon, have had their power fully restored following a significant outage caused by equipment failure at the town’s diesel plant. The outage began Friday evening and left the community relying on backup measures for heat and essential services.
Yukon Energy confirmed the restoration of power but urged residents to conserve electricity to avoid further disruptions. “The power system in Faro is still vulnerable, and a large, sudden increase in load could result in another outage,” the utility stated in a Facebook update posted at 5 p.m. on Saturday.
Timeline of the Outage
The outage was first acknowledged by Yukon Energy at approximately 5:30 p.m. on Friday. Despite efforts to restore power earlier in the day, the system briefly came back online before failing again. The utility explained that “re-energizing the system” proved challenging due to the extended downtime.
To support residents during the outage, the town opened a warming center at the recreation center, powered by a backup generator. Community members were provided with pancakes and coffee on Saturday morning as they awaited updates from the utility.
Addressing Future Vulnerabilities
In its latest updates, Yukon Energy reported that crews are reconfiguring several rental diesel generators to provide backup power in case of further equipment issues. The community is currently “islanded” from the rest of the electrical grid, relying solely on a permanent diesel generator at the plant.
The utility attributed the outage to a broken piece of equipment at the diesel facility, underscoring the challenges of maintaining power in isolated communities.
As the system stabilizes, Yukon Energy continues to monitor conditions to prevent another interruption while urging residents to remain cautious with their electricity usage.
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