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More than 44,000 Nova Scotia Power customers lost electricity on Friday evening amid high temperatures and humidity.
According to the Nova Scotia Power outage map, customers went offline around 8 p.m., mostly affecting the communities of Spryfield, Armdale, Purcells Cove, Sambro, Prospect, Terence Bay, Hatchet Lake, Beechville, Clayton Park and parts of Bedford. The utility is aiming to have power restored by midnight.
“Our crews are investigating the cause of the outage affecting customers in Halifax and will restore power as soon as possible. We’re very sorry for the disruption to your Friday evening,” Nova Scotia Power stated in a Facebook post on Friday.
Lakeside substation fire
In an email to CBC News on Friday night, Nova Scotia Power said the outage originated in its Lakeside substation “due to a failed piece of equipment.”
Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency District Chief Robert Hebb said there was a fire at the substation.
“One of their components let go and caught fire, so that’s led to the power outage,” Hebb told CBC News.
Elevator rescues
In addition to fighting the fire, Hebb said firefighters responded to a number of technical rescues that involved people getting stuck on elevators in buildings that lost power.
“We ended up with three or four different locations where folks were trapped in the elevators temporarily,” Hebb said.
Hebb said crews are mindful of the weather conditions this evening.
“Hydration is huge as it is for everybody else in these extremely high temperatures but especially for crews working in firefighting gear,” he said.
Air conditioners not responsible for outages: NSP
In a response to customer questions on social media, Nova Scotia Power said the outage on Friday night was not a “load shedding event caused by high demand from air conditioners.”
“We can confirm this is not related to grid load; it is strictly an isolated equipment issue at the substation.”
Nova Scotia Power urged customers to keep an eye on its outage map for the most up to date information on estimated restoration times.
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