Daylong Power Outage Leaves Hundreds in Downtown Banff Without Electricity

A widespread power outage knocked out electricity to as many as 1,600 customers in Banff on Tuesday, leaving hundreds of downtown properties in the dark for much of the day.

The outage began at 9:19 a.m., according to FortisAlberta, the utility serving the area. By midday, crews had rerouted power and restored service to most affected customers, but roughly 700 properties in the downtown core remained without electricity, the Town of Banff said.

FortisAlberta said the cause of the outage was still unknown as crews responded Tuesday morning. In its later update, the Town said Fortis had "isolated the problem," but cautioned that repairs would not be completed until mid-afternoon for some downtown properties.

The disruption stretched far beyond the utility's usual response window. FortisAlberta estimates that power is typically restored within about 2.5 hours of an outage. By Tuesday evening, the company's outage map listed an estimated restoration time of 9 p.m., nearly 12 hours after the outage first began, with the status still marked as "restoration in progress." The repairs were classified as emergency work.

The Town of Banff directed residents and businesses experiencing power issues to contact FortisAlberta directly at 310-WIRE, and pointed customers to the utility's website for ongoing updates.

As of Tuesday evening, FortisAlberta had not provided a cause for the outage. The situation is still developing, and the projected 9 p.m. restoration time remained an estimate that could shift as crews completed their work.