(City of Red Deer)

By Sheldon Spackman

Lights Out

Contractor work caused massive power outage Wednesday: City official

Oct 24, 2019 | 1:22 PM

A City of Red Deer official says work that was being performed by a contractor at a main substation downtown was the cause of a large power outage that affected roughly one-third of the city during rush hour on Wednesday.

Electric, Light and Power manager Jim Jorgensen says power to the substation was lost at around 5:30 p.m.

“It’s important to note the trouble did not involve any injury or damage, it was more operation,” he explains. “Once we identified the problem, our focus shifted to making sure we could start restoring power quickly and safely.”

Jorgensen says the outage affected about 15,000 customers and that service was restored by about 6:18 p.m.

“Mainly in the downtown core and adjacent neighbourhoods,” says Jorgensen, “but also extending out as far as parts of Johnstone, Eastview, Morrisroe, West Park, Southpointe and other areas. So where we’re at right now is we’re working with the contractor to determine the exact cause and start making our plans for any adjustments or corrections that are required, and make sure that this does not happen again.”

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Later in the evening at around 9:21 p.m., EL&P crews were dispatched to replace a connector on an overhead line in Riverside Meadows that had heated up. Jorgensen is unsure at this point if the issue was connected to the earlier outage.

“It is possible that the amount of load and the changing conditions may have impacted the connector,” admits Jorgensen. “Regardless, it’s a little bit early to tell for sure. I would say it’s somewhat related, not directly or peripherally.”

Jorgensen reminds Red Deerians that during significant events like the one on Wednesday night, call volumes into the City of Red Deer can be very high.

“I know we did receive some comment back that it was difficult to get through to the after-hours call centre,” adds Jorgensen. “That’s just due to the volume, so we appreciate the patience as we work through that. When we have 15,000 customers impacted, there will be hundreds and thousands of calls that are trying to be processed, so patience is important.”

With such a large outage, Jorgensen says traffic signals are very likely to be affected as they were on Wednesday.

“Traffic signals may not be functioning, so it’s important for everyone to understand that they must follow the rules of the road and whenever they’re going through an uncontrolled intersection, travelling safely is very important,” he says. “There were quite a few that would have been impacted yesterday.”

All in all, Jorgensen does thank the community for its patience and understanding during Wednesday’s outage.

“As always, our goal is to get the power back on as quickly and safely as possible for everyone.”