All of Haines and Skagway went black for 13 minutes Monday as winter electricity demands maxed out power systems.

Darren Belisle, Alaska Power and Telephone manager of power operations for Upper Lynn Canal, said the Goat Lake hydroelectric system in Skagway does not produce enough power to keep up with the extra heating and Christmas light demands this time of year.

He said AP&T has been running a diesel engine in Skagway to make up for the deficit. The engine failed Monday and Goat Lake could not keep up with the load, causing both to shut down.

The total system outage began at 3:32 p.m. and lasted for 13 minutes before the diesel engines were restored, Belisle said. Normal operations resumed at 5:38 p.m., running mostly on Goat Lake with help from the diesel engines in Haines and Skagway.

Belisle calls for power customers to be mindful of energy use when it is cold out.

“Goat Lake can keep up with our normal loads, but adding all the Christmas lights and heating load requires us to have to run diesel engines to keep up,” he said. 

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