File Photo/CHAT News

By Olivia Thorington

IN THE CITY

Power outage impacting thousands in Medicine Hat caused by gas turbine failure, city says

Apr 17, 2025 | 2:40 PM

A brief power outage for thousands of people in Medicine Hat and Redcliff on Thursday was caused when a gas turbine tripped offline during routine testing, the city said.

The distribution system’s automatic protection protocol was triggered when the turbine failed, a spokesperson told CHAT News.

That caused the distribution network to systematically shed load until the power system stabilized, with protection measures working as intended.

As soon as the generator was restarted, the distribution feeders reenergized and power came back on, they said.

The City of Medicine Hat reported that approximately 11,000 customers were without power before it was restored minutes later.

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Rissa Blaquiere, who lives in the Riverside neighbourhood of Medicine Hat, said her roommate asked if she had power and that’s when she noticed her phone had stopped charging.

Like many others, she quickly turned to social media and found many others were experiencing an outage as well.

Blaquiere and other residents told CHAT News their power went out around 11:45 a.m. and flipped back on around 12:15 p.m.

Residents can find outage information on the city’s emergency response and power outages page.