Traffic chaos follows ‘cascading’ power outage from switch failure in Saskatoon

There was gridlock in many parts of Saskatoon after power was restored following a major outage that hit much of the city on Tuesday afternoon, and freezing rain and light snow falling in the evening was adding to the chaos.

After positive temperatures in Saskatoon earlier in the day, as darkness fell the temperature drop meant many areas of the city were facing icy conditions as well.

On Wednesday, the high is expected to drop down to -17 C, but by Friday the city will warm back up to 1 C.

Traffic was gridlocked on Idylwyld Drive late Tuesday afternoon. (Shane Clausing/650 CKOM)

According to a City of Saskatoon post on X, power was back on in all areas at 4:09 p.m. after the outage was first reported at 1:45 p.m.

Trevor Bell, Director of Saskatoon Light and Power, told CKOM News that the outage was a result of a failure of a high voltage switch in one of the substations in the northwest corner of Saskatoon.

“So that switch failed, and when it failed, it caused a cascading event on two of our transmission lines, which affects the crescents of the city from the west to the north and over to the east, Bell said.

“It didn’t affect all areas, it was kind of spotty. Parts of the middle of Saskatoon were still on, parts of the northeast were still on, but it affected probably about two thirds of our customers,” he said.

Bell said Saskatoon Light and Power had 60,000 customers and the outage “probably affected 30,000 to 40,000 customers”.

“This is quite rare for us,” he said. “It’s not very often that something affects this big of an area for that long …  once every few years, definitely not an annual kind of thing.”

Bell said they did not yet know what caused the switch to fail.

“When we have something like this happen, we first try to find out what happened, and then we try to make it safe, patrol our other areas and try to restore power,” he said.

“So we’ve done all that. We’ve isolated the problem. Now what we need to do is go in and take a look at exactly why this switch scale, and see what needs to be repaired, and then take a look at it and learn from it.

“We have switches like this across the city, so we’ll be looking to see if there is anything that needs to be done at the other locations as well.”

✅ Power has been restored across all areas of Saskatoon. Thanks for your patience!

ℹ️ Learn more: https://t.co/lk5BEjgXRk pic.twitter.com/OlH48Bf3xs

— City of Saskatoon (@cityofsaskatoon) December 3, 2024

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Has power been restored in your area? Did the outage affect you in any way?

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I’m in Idylwyld heading north right now and traffic is as far as the eye can see.

The power is back on at 8th Street, which was another problem area earlier this morning. @CKOMNews pic.twitter.com/VryHicYJM5

— Shane (@ShaneC06) December 3, 2024

Where were the traffic problem areas?

Moving around the city is still slow, and traffic lights were still not functioning on 22nd Street at 3:30 p.m., a poster said on Facebook group ‘Saskatoon accidents, traffic jams, roadwork and other delays.’

Traffic was still snarled in many areas, with a text sent to Rawlco at 3:30 p.m. saying it was particularly bad on 33rd Street, around FreshCo and the Co-op, where there were still no traffic lights around 4 p.m.

Another text to Rawlco said the area around 33rd and Circle Drive was gridlocked and the area was “packed with vehicles.”

Another Facebook poster said at 4 p.m. that College Drive was “a disaster,” with a collision one block west of Preston on College Drive, blocking both west and eastbound lanes.

There was also a collision blocking the intersection at Boychuck and 8th Street around 4 p.m.

Also on X, Saskatoon Transit said buses are experiencing delays caused by traffic disruptions.

Power has been restored at the Transit Customer Service Centre in the Downtown Terminal and at Access Transit.
Phone lines are now fully operational.

Thank you for your patience during the outage. pic.twitter.com/aKHPqmqD9f

— Saskatoon Transit (@stoontransit) December 3, 2024

In a message on X, SaskPower said the outage was restricted to the area serviced by Saskatoon Light and Power.

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The city said crews are working to repair damage to electrical equipment.

I just drove from Cumberland and 8th Street to 8th and Circle Drive and power is out everywhere!

Every business, store, and intersection has ZERO power at the moment.

It’s made driving conditions very dangerous! @CKOMNews pic.twitter.com/px39IZVbaa

— Shane (@ShaneC06) December 3, 2024

Some Saskatoon Public schools dismissed students early. Parents and caregivers were contacted and asked to pick up their children.

Neighbourhoods that were without power:

An updated map at 4:30 p.m. shows progress of restoring power. (City of Saskatoon/submitted)

650 CKOM’s David Kirton said he was out shopping when the outage hit.

— with files from CKOM News