The blackouts that left Cordova in the dark on Aug. 14 were caused by a tricky-to-locate faulty cable, a spokesperson for Cordova Electric Cooperative has said.
“This is a random failure,” said Scott Newlun, manager of generation and distribution for CEC. “It’s nothing that we’re too concerned about happening again. It’s just something that happened.”
Power outages began at 6:45 a.m., when a distribution cable on CEC’s Lake Avenue feeder shorted out, Newlun said. Sporadic outages persisted until after 6 p.m. as CEC personnel troubleshot the system, searching for the exact cause of the problem. Over the Aug. 17-18 weekend, pad-mounted transformers on Lake Avenue remained wrapped in red caution tape and surrounded by safety cones.
On Tuesday, Aug. 20, residents in the Lake Avenue area were notified to expect intermittent controlled outages as repairs proceeded. However, CEC doesn’t anticipate further accidental outages, Newlun said.
“We have the system stabilized right now,” Newlun said. “I thank the public for helping us with this and notifying us where the power was going out at. That really helps us with our troubleshooting.”
