Record-setting natural gas outage hits Melfort area
A natural gas outage that affected about 4,500 customers is the largest SaskEnergy has ever experienced.
Dave Burdeniuk, director of government and media relations with SaskEnergy, said the cause of the outage in the Melfort area was determined to be a ruptured six-inch gas line in a farmer’s field between the communities of Weldon and Birch Hills. He said 43 SaskEnergy technicians responded to the incident and service was restored to customers through a second sixinch line and temporary cascades, which ensure the line stays pressurized.
Burdeniuk said the natural gas provider noticed a drop in pressure in the line on Wednesday around 4 a.m. Pressure was increased to the pipe but that had no effect. Several hours later, SaskEnergy started to receive calls from people with no heat in St. Brieux, Kinistino and Melfort.
The temperature in each of the affected communities was -23 C and expected to drop to -27 C today.
“We can have minor maintenance issues during the winter,” Burdeniuk said. “You may get a little bit of moisture in a gas line and that might cause a station to freeze off and we could lose a few customers here or there. But when you see pressure dropping like that, that means you’ve got an open pipeline somewhere.”
Burdeniuk said an investigation after repairs are made should determine what caused the pipe to rupture, noting this type of outage is “very uncommon.”
He said the largest previous outage happened in Nipawin in 2008, when 800 customers were without service after a contractor struck a SaskEnergy line. The line strike was followed by an explosion that killed two men and destroyed several businesses.
SaskEnergy estimates Wednesday’s incident affected 300 people in St. Brieux, 500 people in Kinistino and about 3,600 in Melfort. Burdeniuk said technicians were going door to door to ensure appliances at residential properties and businesses had been re-lit and were operating safely.
“We’ll work through the night to get that done,” he said.
If a customer is not present at home or business, a technician will leave a tag on the door asking them to get in touch with SaskEnergy. If they don’t hear from the customer within a reasonable period of time, he said SaskEnergy will start looking at alternative ways to access the location, which may involve police or a locksmith.
“We know in these temperatures you have a limited time,” he said. “We probably have until later (Thursday) morning before places might start getting really cold and there’s always the risk of damage from frozen water pipes, so our goal is to try and get everything done (Wednesday night).”
Anyone looking for additional information about what to do in the event of a natural gas outage is encouraged to call 1-888-700-0427 or visit the SaskEnergy website.