9:00 pm Update
Homer Electric Association has corrected the outage that started at 4:15 pm.
Joe Gallagher detailed the situation.
Gallagher: “As of 8:30 Homer Electric has been able to restore power to all its members that were affected by a system wide power outage that started at 4:15 this afternoon, the outage affected all HEA members and related to a problem with a transmission line that runs from Bradley Lake hydro electric project down to Homer, something happened on the transmission line, we did do a quick fly over with a helicopter to try and see if there was an obvious problem, we weren’t able to see anything that stood out so the transmission line was re-energized in the evening and we had power back on to the Kenai area about 5:30 and then worked on restoration to the rest of the Kenai Peninsula and were able to complete that restoration by 8:30 this evening, so again, the power’s back on, we apologize for the inconvenience and it was related to a transmission line and we are back at full service as of 8:30.”
Gallagher said some of the possibilities for the loss of voltage could have been lighting as there was weather in the area, trees knocking against the lines or even simply a bird.
7:00 pm Update
Homer Electric Association is investigating the cause of a wide spread power outage that affected the entire HEA system.
Joe Gallagher with HEA detailed the areas still affected by the outage.
Gallagher: “Homer Electric Association experienced a system wide power outage at 4:15 this afternoon again the outage effected all 32,000 HEA meters from Sterling, Nikiski, Kenai, Soldotna and all the way south to Homer and the Kackemak Bay communities. The problem appears to be related to something that went wrong along the transmission line from the Bradley Lake hydro plant and Homer, something happened on that line causing the power outage, as of about 6:15 power has been restored to the Nikiski area to the Kenai area, along the Spur Highway to Beaver Creek to Soldotna, power again restored to those areas, also in Sterling the power is back on to about Boundary Avenue to just outside Soldotna. Unfortunately we are still without power in Soldotna and south all the way to Homer and we are working at this time to get power to that area.”
Original Report:
Homer Electric Association is investigating the cause of a wide spread power outage that is affecting Kenai, Soldotna, Kasilof, Sterling, and the K-Beach area.
Joe Gallagher with HEA said the outage began around 4:15 pm.
Gallagher: “We had a loss of voltage and we are not exactly sure what happened on the transmission line to cause that so at this time the circuits were dropped due to a problem we experienced on our trasmission system, what caused that we’re not exactly sure. It affects the entire HEA system which is from Sterling, and of course over to Kenai, Soldotna, Nikiski, down south to Ninilchik all the way to Homer and accross the Bay to Seldovia, Port Graham and Nanwalek.”
They are working to bring back power circuit by circuit and Gallagher said the process should take about an hour.
We will update this story as information is provided to us.