'Extremely rare' ice blockage at hydro dam causes power outage in several Yukon communities

An underwater camera has confirmed that anice blockage at the intake of theAishihikhydro facility caused the power outage south of Whitehorse Tuesday morning.

The camera found six to eight inches of slushy ice - the technical term is frazil ice - covering what's called the trash rack, said Yukon Energy spokesperson Janet Patterson.

She said Yukon Energy will dispatch a crew along with the City of Whitehorse steam truck to the Aishihik planton Wednesday. They anticipate it will take about a day to remove the ice.

Patterson said an ice blockage at the dam is an "extremely rare event" that has not happened in 25 years.

The blockage prevented water from getting to the generators, reducing output.

The power outage lasted an hour before power was re-routed to the affected areas. The outage affected Dawson City as well as communities south of Whitehorse to Teslin.

The Aishihik hydro plant is still offline and customers' power is coming from hydro facilities inWhitehorse and Mayo, along with diesel and LNG generation.

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