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PORCUPINE PLAIN – Northeast communities experienced an unexpected "planned" power outage on March 16.

On the SaskPower website, one location listed the planned outage as cancelled, while another indicated only two 30-minute outages. Communication about the outage was inconsistent across SaskPower media platforms, leaving many businesses and community members frustrated.

Councillor for the Village of Bjorkdale, Dave Duhaime, said, “This has affected many businesses in our area, and when the information on the website is all saying several different things, it’s hard to plan accordingly when you're a business and requiring staff to be there and if you can operate. I think communication with locals who may be affected should be improved.”

The unexpected power outage led to numerous calls to the SaskPower outage line when electricity went out at approximately 1:45 p.m. and remained off until 4:58 p.m.

A spokesperson for SaskPower said, “We use many tools to notify and update our customers about upcoming outages. This includes X, saskpower.com, the mySaskPower app, and local radio advertisements. We strive to give customers 48 hours' notice before an outage. This is to lessen impacts to our customers, should the work be rescheduled. We are always evaluating new technologies and processes to improve customer experience.”

At a local skating rink in Porcupine Plain, an under-11 Blues hockey playoff game was interrupted by the outage.

Aron McCabe, a local volunteer and hockey manager for the Porcupine Plain Blues, said on Facebook, “Pretty frustrated with the lack of communication from SaskPower this past week. After being told that no outages would be in effect for today, their last-minute changes led to 25 families from Porcupine and Tisdale sitting in a dark, cold arena for three hours. Their outage center was called several times for updates, only to be met with, ‘it should be on in 15 minutes.’”

McCabe added, “I have no issue with the people performing the work. A little better communication from SaskPower would be appreciated next time.”

A SaskPower spokesperson explained, “When planning work that requires a planned outage, the duration is an estimate for how long we expect the power to be out. Sometimes, outages last longer than expected due to a number of reasons, including unforeseen shifts in the weather. Sometimes, once we start the job, we’ll also discover additional equipment that needs fixing, which takes more time.”

“Last week's outages were to allow our crews to safely move customers onto new infrastructure of new power poles and power lines in the area, which should provide increased reliability for the area. SaskPower would like to thank all customers impacted for their patience while our crews completed this necessary work.”