New Year’s revellers were left in the dark as Jasper experienced several prolonged power outages on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1.

According to ATCO, the outage was caused when a breaker blew at 10:15 p.m. on Dec. 31, which knocked out power to 1,122 customers. The blown breaker caused a small fire behind Home Hardware.

Rob Carrothers, district manager of ATCO electric described the event as a ‘catastrophic fault,”

“It blew pieces in a 100 metre radius,” Carrothers said. “I’ve looked after Jasper for 20 years and this is the hardest fault we’ve had.”

Three breakers were blown during the incident, as the affects of the accident were felt at the Jasper power plant, cutting power to the entire town.

While crews responded to the accident quickly, New Year’s eve party goers flooded the streets during the outage, and several flocked to the Athabasca Hotel, the only bar in town with a generator.

“It took 49 minutes to put the power back on,” Carrothers said.

Crews were able to restore power fifteen minutes before midnight, however others had to wait until 2 a.m., until power was fully restored to the community. The faulty equipment was replaced and an investigation into the incident is under way.

But that wasn’t the end of the outages. On Jan. 1 at 1:15 p.m. a lightning arrestor faulted while crews were re-energizing the power line, which tripped a breaker. The outage affected 900 customers in Jasper for nearly two hours, as power was restored by 3 p.m.

According to ATCO, the lightning arrestor was likely stressed from the outage the previous night. No other equipment was affected.

A new piece of equipment is being blamed for the Dec. 31 outage, and ATCO has replaced the faulty unit with a more reliable breaker. Jasper is currently undergoing a large upgrade to its power services – one that is supposed to reduce the affects of power outages in the community. However ATCO doesn’t know what initiated the failure and some of the new components installed have been at the root of some of the outages. They are currently taking the matter up with the manufacturer of the parts.

ATCO officials said Jasper should experience much better performance once the kinks are worked out of the new equipment.

“Once we get through the trials and tribulations, Jasper can enjoy the legacy of these improvements,” Carrothers said.

Carrothers says the level of service experienced in Jasper over the past month ‘is not acceptable’ and the company apologizes for the inconvenience to its customers in Jasper.

“We care about the level of service and we apologize for the inconvenience,” Carrothers said. He’s been visiting with several customers most affected by the outage.

“This recent experience is troubling to us and our customers,” Carrothers said.

Bernhard Schneider, general manager at Mountain Park Lodges said the power outages are frustrating, but his staff have learned to endure. MPL hotels are equipped with flashlights, candles and glow sticks, which are used in the event of a blackout.

While he said the hotels were well equipped, he recognized the potential for trouble.

“It was very concerning, with a full town, full hotels and a full moon, there was potential for trouble,” Schneider said.

Depending on the time and length of the outage, MPL occasionally offers refunds and discounts to its guests. Schneider said one of the MPL hotels has a generator, but he wants to see reliable service provided by ATCO.

“It’s a service we pay for,” Schneider said.

Since this outage was caused by equipment failure, it’s unlikely ATCO will compensate its customers for the outage, Carrothers said. The power company will compensate customers if an outage is caused by negligence.

Linda Murphy Bochon, a spokeswoman with ATCO said customers should always be prepared for power outages. There are several uncontrollable factors that can cause outages, such as weather and animals, so customers should be prepared with candles.

The town is on a separate grid from the rest of the province. Carrothers said while Jasper experienced more than 60 outages in 2009, on average it historically performs above the national average in terms of service. However December service has been much worse.