Power outage affects 800 local customers

A power outage Friday affected about 800 Grant PUD customers in the Grand Coulee Dam area for over seven hours.

“The issue that has caused the outage in the area is located on a transmission pole that is within an isolated area without easy access,” a Grant PUD post on Facebook said, updated at 11:05 p.m. that night.

The power eventually returned to those in Grand Coulee at about 1:30 a.m. Saturday.

The outage affected people from both above and below the Grand Coulee Dam, impacting people in Electric City, Grand Coulee, and Coulee Dam differently.

“We got lucky in Coulee Dam,” said Shane Moses, who lives on the east side of Coulee Dam. “Mine went off at 7:25 and came back on at 7:50 on the dot. I’m just glad it wasn’t off for like four or five hours.”

The coulee area wasn’t alone in experiencing power outages that day, with customers in the Stratford and Moses Lake areas also being affected.

A brief thunderstorm passed through the area at about the time of the outage, accompanied by heavy winds.

“It appears the issue was due to weather conditions that evening,” said PUD spokesman Ryan Holterhoff. “Breakers began tripping in the substation [on the west side of SR-174] at 6:11 p.m., which knocked out power and impacted 800 customers. An attempt to close the breaker was unsuccessful. Crews working on the issue located a pole that had a bad insulator and a wire lying on one of the cross arms. Repairs were completed at 1:29 a.m., and all customers were energized at this time.”

“Storms often can result in power outages,” said Grant PUD Public Affairs Officer Chuck Allen. “Wind is a big issue, as well as lightning, of course, can be in and of itself. There are times rain can be a problem if you’ve had dry, dusty conditions where you can have sediment on the poles that then can make contact with an energized power line, then cause faults.”

“All of our equipment is designed to minimize those issues,” Allen continued, “but there is nothing that is 100 percent foolproof. That’s why we’ve got folks that go out and make these repairs.”