Nova Scotia Power is providing some answers after thousands of people were left without heat during a record breaking cold snap.

More than 30,000 lost power Friday into Saturday as temperatures dropped and windchills made it feel like -35 to -45.

New record low temperatures were set across the province including in the Brier Island, Halifax, Kentville, Port Hawksbury and Yarmouth areas.

Halifax Stanfield recorded -25.6, breaking the record of -24.4 set in 1971, and a wind chill of -43, beating the previous 1967 record of -41.

“We haven’t seen conditions this extreme in almost 20 years. And we know how tough these conditions may have been for our customers” – Nova Scotia Power

The company blames the outages on high winds, trees on lines and overloaded equipment.

NSP explains it was a record-breaking weekend for power generation resulting in the highest demand for electricity since 2004.

They had 300 crew ready to respond to the extreme cold but high winds delayed restoration efforts.

“When the wind speed was at 80 km per hour, our crews had to stand down until the wind slowed down due to safety reasons. They then safely resumed restoring power to our customers,” NSP said in a statement.

“Even with the right gear and equipment to help them stay warm, crews needed to take breaks to warm up from working in the extreme cold temperatures.”

The utility is facing increased public pressure from all angles over reliability as customers brace for a 14 per cent increase to their bills.