Anyway, in case if future students come across this post/error, I have solved it myself.
Long story short: I was seeing the error as above (online services are down) when I went to upload my documents AFTER logging in. So after contacting technical support (no answer), twitter acc of IRCC (no answer), or telephone (no help), I deleted my application and restarted a new application. This solved it. I was able to upload my documents and was no longer seeing an error. I dont know why there was an error, but this solved it.
I didnt apply via the new portal because it was only providing me option for a new sp, not renewing/extending it.