Photo: contributed
UPDATE 12:05
Power has now been restored in Kelowna.
More than 30,000 customers lost power shortly before 11:30 this morning. Power was restored to many before noon, and the final 6,238 customers saw power return shortly after noon.
FortisBC officials told Castanet News they have not identified an exact cause of the outage.
Some traffic lights may need to be reset and could still be affected.
UPDATE 11:55 a.m
Power has been restored to most FortisBC customers in the City of Kelowna.
Only 6,238 customers remain without electricity.
These customers are located in the downtown area south of Bernard Avenue, which extends south to KLO Road.
At the peak of the outage, more than 30,000 customers across the city were without power.
Power went out at 11:24 this morning and was mostly restored within half an hour.
The cause according to the FortisBC website is a transmission interruption.
UPDATE 11:50 a.m
Power is starting to return to a large part of Kelowna north of Highway 97.
Some areas of North Glenmore, Rutland, downtown south of KLO and the McCurdy/Leathead areas remain without power.
There is still no indication why the power went out.
Castanet has contacted Fortis BC.
UPDATE 11:45 a.m
More than 30,000 Fortis BC customers are now affected by a massive power outage in the City of Kelowna.
The latest numbers now include most of the city centre, a larger part of Rutland and the South Pandosy and Lower Mission areas.
There is good news for the people of the far north. Power has been restored to some customers.
ORIGINAL 11:35 a.m
Power is out in a large part of Kelowna.
According to the Fortis BC website, more than 18,400 customers are without power.
The outage is affecting most of Glenmore, a large section of Rutland and extending south through a large area of the central part of the city, parts of the north end, downtown and the upper and lower mission.
Part of the outage extends as far south as Oliver.
The power was shut off shortly before 11:30 this morning.
There is no word yet on the cause of the outage.
Castanet has contacted Fortis to request information.