"A very unusual event:" The electricity is being restored after a massive power outage (update)

Many Nova Scotians spend most of the day on Thursday being unable to work, refuel cars or make coffee.

This after a mbadive power outage, which affected 250,000 customers of Nova Scotia Power at its peak.

Spokesperson Tiffany Chase said that a major transportation line near Port Hawkesbury was the main reason why residents of the Halifax area did not have electricity.

"He had a series of cascading events that brought him down," she said. "This line is in a way the backbone of the system that carries electricity from our Cape Breton power station to customers in mainland Nova Scotia and the subway." Halifax. "

In addition, a similar event occurred near Memramcook, New Brunswick, which cut the transmission lines that connect the two provinces.

"Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are interconnected, which allows them to support each other and provide a stable electricity grid," said Chase.

However, the system is designed to shut off power to protect against damage.

"It's better for our customers, because it means that the system itself did not suffer the level of damage it could have, if we had a surge, for example," Chase said. "In this case, the system did exactly what it should have done, unfortunately causing temporary interruptions on the part of our customers, but we are working hard to get them back."

Both lines have since been restored and the teams are working on repairing the damaged equipment.

Chase said it was "very unusual" to have two major transmission lines at the same time, adding that the weather was a determining factor.

Halifax experienced a light snow and heavy bursts of 80 km / h, but other parts of the province did not have that chance.

Nova Scotia Power crews in parts of Cape Breton report up to 30 cm of snow in some areas.

"Very heavy and wet snow has driven the power lines, weighing them down and breaking them in some cases," she said. "We also saw trees crouching, heavy with heavy snow and pushed down by strong winds that broke poles and lines."

Nova Scotia Power activated its emergency operations center on Wednesday, with teams scattered across the province to deal with the blackouts.

As of 14:36 ​​the utility reported that there were about 88,500 customers without electricity in the province, with about 20,000 customers involved in HRM.

For more information on power outages, you can view the NS Power Trouble Card.

The breakdowns affected businesses, schools and services. A list of closures and cancellations can be found here.