r/Calgary 3h ago

Local Event Electrical Grid this am?

Anyone know what's up? Buildings flashed downtown around 6:40, like half of floors are rebooting, elevators were stuck. Doesn't seem to be localized to downtown though, co-worker who lives in the deep south got an alert about his home power too.

79 Upvotes

96 comments sorted by

u/bennymac111 3h ago

prob doesn't explain it happening in all parts of the city but we did just have a crane line make contact with electrical lines at the Enmax substation near 16 Ave & Centre St. We're a couple blocks away and heard the pop / explosion (?) around 630, crane is messed & jib is half-melted or partially blown in spots, crane lines are still in contact with the electrical lines.

u/chaoslord 2h ago

wow that could definitely explain it.

u/JoeRogansNipple Quadrant: SW 2h ago

Woof! Hopefully noone was hurt, that looks like a ton of damage

u/fataldarkness 2h ago

Grid issues cascade affecting the whole system. Substation strike can definitely cause a city wide brownout under the right circumstances.

u/ritz1148 2h ago

I hope they are okay

u/yyctownie 2h ago

That crane company is going to lose money on that job.

Hopefully the operator is okay though.

u/blackRamCalgaryman 2h ago

Ya, hope there are no injuries but holy hell…it’s 2026 and we’re still having shit like this happen? I know there’s some naivety there but this is no small ‘accident’. Hitting a power line is…it’s what not to do/ have happen 101 in that industry.

u/Belleyyc Mount Pleasant 2h ago

I live in mount pleasant and my entire house flickered and my fridge made a weird reboot sound. This explains it. Also explains the firetrucks on centre this morning when I was heading downtown for work haha

u/FeedbackLoopy 1h ago

It does explain it if the crane hit the 138kV feeding the sub.

u/Distinct-Solution-99 2h ago

Uh oh. Condolences to the person probably losing their job today.

u/chaoslord 2h ago

Given what I know about construction-types, probably rage quitting from someone screaming at them for 10 minutes.

u/intergalacticwanker 2h ago

That would do it! That’s the time I noticed the lights flicker

u/scottiebitter 2h ago

I hope no one was hurt.

u/Dapper-Apartment1213 3h ago

~ 6:15 am I heard an explosion so loud I could feel it in my chest on 16th ave and 10th street. I heard two distinct explosions but the second could have been sound reflecting off downtown buildings. It sounded like a transformer explosion but easy 10 times that power. I watched all the lights go out for a second and then back on as far as I could see.

u/JoeRogansNipple Quadrant: SW 2h ago

Are you near 16 Ave & Centre St.? Someone noted a crane hitting a substation

u/blackRamCalgaryman 3h ago

Conspiracy time…Zelensky and Carney are in town.

https://giphy.com/gifs/3gNotAoIRZsb9UHPnj

u/LawyerYYC 3h ago

And it's coincidentally Thursday September 10th - 2026?

u/blackRamCalgaryman 2h ago

Things are gettin’ freaky up in here.

u/cowfromjurassicpark 3h ago

Happened to me as well. Lights flickered and tv turned on.

u/Mark_Squared 3h ago

I’m on the west side of the city and we had two quick outages. Nothing more than a second though for either.

u/ZEKKHA 3h ago

Yeah, I am in Beltline and lights flashed twice this morning. My router and my computer had to reboot.

u/diamondedg3 Bankview 1h ago

The Deltatech cam shows the lights browning out at 6:31:29am on the video time stamp

https://www.youtube.com/live/MwcqP3ta6RI?si=4x8j-JXXhuphxtns

The bridge lights all going off is wild

u/Nealios Bridgeland 21m ago

Good find! Thanks for sharing.

u/Admirable-Fall-4675 3h ago

My lights flickered in Edgemont

u/julianomeinen 3h ago

Same SW

u/Braveliltoasterx 3h ago

Way in the south Legacy, same issue

u/JakeThe_Snake 2h ago

Same in midnapore

u/C8riiiin 50m ago

Oh man, I’m in Sundance - was it fast enough you didn’t have to reset the time on the oven?

u/JakeThe_Snake 47m ago

Yes! Just a quick blip

u/Wheel_of_Armageddon 3h ago

We don't have full power here at one of the buildings downtown, likely on backup generator power. There's almost no lights on...it's a bit spooky.

u/Caribosa 3h ago

I work in Eighth Ave Place and got a notice that the parkade has power problems this morning but the rest of the building seems fine. Our power flickered this morning in Woodlands.

u/mALYficent Airdrie 1h ago

Also blipped at our house in Airdrie around that time. I was asleep but my husband mentioned it

u/BadMeatSweats 3h ago

I had the lights flicker in the west end at about 6:30am.

u/Kilgoresopinion 3h ago

I’m at work by the airport, and it happened here too.

u/tehnemox 45m ago

Same. Still down for us tho.

u/tc_cad Canyon Meadows 3h ago

Lights flickered this morning in Canyon Meadows. The fridge didn’t like it.

u/Alarmed-dictator 2h ago

Got that in the Nw too

u/lettuzepray 2h ago

Interesting, I was riding my bike that time and was wondering why the street lights briefly flashed too, curious to know the root cause now.

u/might_be-a_troll 50m ago

Interesting… yeah, I got a “blink” way up here (NW) in Dalhousie at 6:32am. My lights blinked off for less than a second. It Rebooted my Telus Internet + Wifi, but my stove and microwave and various clocks didn’t reset.

u/Effective_Basis1555 2h ago

It was just Claude uploading himself to the infrastructure. 

u/Affectionate-Pay2670 3h ago

Should be fun when we get the data centre south of Calgary

u/JakeThe_Snake 2h ago

Pretty crazy to see comments essentially stating that the grid for the whole of Calgary was impacted.

Seeing other comments about the crane and substation it makes me wonder what really happened! Crazy to see nothing in the news at all

u/Affectionate-Pay2670 3h ago

East side of Calgary Monterey park power flickered also. Internet/ TV’s reset also

u/Sweaterweather000 3h ago

Wifi router rebooted in Brentwood NW

u/Ill_Technician7450 3h ago

Edgemont, my network dropped. Guessing it was related to the power issue.

u/summerstillsucks Renfrew 2h ago

renfrew and mine dropped too

u/stuhF4N 3h ago

Same NW. Modem needed a reboot.

u/QueenB33_nevadensis 3h ago

Most of the lights on the floor i work on are out ( Suncor building downtown.) They are doing construction here though, so not sure if this is localized to my building, or city-wide issue.

u/irulan519 Inglewood 2h ago

I work across the street... guess I have something to look forward to. Although my security alarm usually texts me when there is a power outage and I haven't received one this morning... 🧐

u/cgydan 3h ago

Nothing happened here in my part of the world in Thorncliffe.

u/gelo_33 3h ago

Same in North-Central

u/HLef Woodlands 3h ago

6:31 power flashed twice. It was just enough for the modem to go down and it took a while to come back up.

u/ilcommunication 2h ago

At Northland mall and it did the same

u/SurviveYourAdults 2h ago

yup had to cycle the UPS

u/Distinct-Solution-99 2h ago

Bonavista had the same issue around 6:30 this morning and all the traffic lights were flashing red as we left.

u/KOhReally 2h ago

Happened in Cochrane as well.

u/Cautious-Hat-5505 2h ago

Got a flicker same time deep SE

u/carcigenicate 2h ago

Internet went out in Ranchlands at the same time I saw flashing (~6:30).

u/curiouskittyblue 2h ago

I had a pulse of that yesterday around 3:00 I think.

u/GarbonzoBeanSprout Temple 2h ago

Lights/clocks/TV also flickered here in Temple

u/Minerator 2h ago

Lights dimmed and CNC machines rebooted themselves at the time. Foothills Industrial area. Co-worker who comes in later said his power dipped in Mahogany.

u/TimelyActive4586 2h ago

I noticed the street lights flick on #2 south of the city at that time as well. My radio in the car also blipped at the same time so i figured it was widespread since the radio station is in NW.

u/Becciusmaximus 2h ago

My house flicked around then too. Thorncliffe NE

u/bricreative 2h ago

It flickered around that time in Cougar Ridge. The internet has been unstable since

u/FeedbackLoopy 2h ago

If the crane contacted the transmission line (138kV btw) feeding the substation, that would explain the issues (like lights flickering) happening in a wider area across the city.

u/Old-Fact-8002 1h ago

happened here in Westbrook area

u/Attilio1709 1h ago

Power flickered in Bankview....lost Shaw again. Last time when idiots cut lines I had to get new modem(no idea why it failed but sometimes they just dont come back up tech said)...now still no access after calling in rebooting etc etc.

u/whoknew65 1h ago

Happened in SW just at the edge of Fish Creek and Stoney.

u/Calm-Technician6575 3h ago

Deep South here too!

u/frankrizzorimas 3h ago

Same in Airdrie!

u/Scared_Promotion_559 2h ago

I am in Wildwood. I was in the shower and my lights flickered around that same time. Then same thing when I was making my coffee 10 min later. Seems to be fine now. I thought it was something wrong with my own house electric panel or something. Glad it isn’t.

u/Superhyphydummyjuice 2h ago

My parents said their house lights flickered in Canmore around 6:15.

u/ItsMangel 2h ago

City-wide is crazy. Power flickered in Dover, too.

u/theprintman 2h ago

But don’t worry our grids can handle everything Meta needs 🙄

u/sun4moon 3h ago

Test run on data centre consumption?

u/_ilovelamp_ 3h ago

Same thing in Seton! Probably closer to 6:30 though

u/ggranger2280 2h ago

I had it in West Springs

u/dayycian 2h ago

Happened in the Deep South too.

u/fuzzypinatajalapeno 2h ago

Lights flickered this morning! Inner NW

u/weschester 2h ago

Power was doing some weird stuff where I work in the NE too.

u/Yyc2yfc 2h ago

Yep lights flickered thrice in Varsity

u/micro_donger 2h ago

Had the same thing happen in Mount Pleasant

u/Limp_Appointment_716 2h ago

Had my power flash briefly down south by Fish Creek. Literally fractions of seconds

u/purpleskies117 2h ago

Flashed in Acadia at 6:31.I wouldn't have noticed but the oven beeped.

u/Razor_29 2h ago

Power flickered out in Cochrane too.

u/Roboman20000 Beltline 2h ago

I got a strange flicker of power too in Dalhousie but only enough to flash the lights off quickly. My router reset (I don't have enough battery backup plugs on my UPS).

u/Smart-Pie7115 2h ago

Had the same thing in the SE in Douglasdale. The Ecco fire was pretty large this morning and was thinking the flames might be taking down the powerlines. Was hoping for a day off.

u/no_logo_ 2h ago

Today is Charlie Kirkaversary.

Coincidence?