A tripped hydro unit last week in Whitehorse led to the loss of roughly half of the electricity Yukon Energy Corporation usually generates in the summer.

On July 6, a short-lived outage lasted around 45 minutes but involved the loss of 20 megawatts of electricity, communications manager Lisa Wiklund said by email.

Wiklund said the outage affected parts of Whitehorse, Carcross and Tagish as well as customers south of the city from the MacRae Industrial area to Teslin.

The energy corporation used diesel and liquefied natural gas to make up electricity that was previously being generated by the hydro unit.

What caused the unit to trip is still under investigation.

Yukon Energy Corporation generates and transmits electricity in the Yukon, then sells it wholesale to ATCO Electric Yukon, which distributes it.

Contact Dana Hatherly at dana.hatherly@yukon-news.com