Yukon cold snap drives surge in energy demand
Published 5:30 pm Thursday, December 11, 2025
Yukon Energy spokesperson Keely Bass told the News the territory’s power grid has been under significant strain during this week’s cold snap, with demand reaching nearly 90 per cent of available supply on the morning of Dec. 10.
At 7:30 a.m. that day, she said the publicly owned utility operator recorded a peak load of 115.19 megawatts across the territory. She added as part of its mutual aid protocol, Yukon Energy asked mines to disconnect and switch to self‑generation.
By comparison, on Dec. 1, when average temperatures in Whitehorse hovered near –2 C, she said peak demand was about 78 megawatts.
Bass said rising winter peak demand underscores the need for new, reliable power sources. Yukon Energy pointed to its Whitehorse Power Centres project, which would expand generation capacity to keep pace with growing electricity use during severe cold snaps, she said.
Yukon Energy plans to build two thermal power centres and new substation over the next five years to boost winter capacity, according to Yukon Energy’s website.
Bass said Monday’s blackout in Whitehorse’s Whistle Bend subdivision was caused by equipment failure.
The cold snap brought wind chills near –50 C on Dec. 10 and 11, prompting Environment Canada warnings, outages and closures across the territory.
Contact Jake Howarth at jake.howarth@yukon-news.com
