A system wide power outage blacked out the central and southern Kenai Peninsula Monday.
Homer Electric Association spokesperson Joe Gallagher said the power outage began at 4:15 p.m. and affected 32,000 meters of line. The outage was related to a fault along the transmission line from the Bradley Lake hydroelectric plant on the south side of Kachemak Bay. HEA was able to energize the high voltage transmission lines found to be at fault, he said.
“It appears something happened on the transmission line and affected the entire HEA system,” he said.
Gallagher said by 6 p.m. power was restored to Nikiski and Kenai to Beaver Creek on the Kenai Spur Highway. At 7:45 p.m., HEA began restoring power to the rest of the affected areas. By 8:30 p.m., power had been restored to all affected areas.
“Power runs through individual circuits through various substations,” Gallagher said. “We stagger the load to not overrun the system at one time.”
According to HEA, the duration and size of the outage was compounded by two transmission related construction projects underway. A small section of the transmission line between Soldotna and Funny River is out of service due to construction work at the HEA substation in Soldotna. In addition, HEA and Chugach Electric are working on the transmission system between Soldotna and Cooper Landing.
Gallagher said the cause of the outage was not yet determined but under investigation.
