Maintenance on a transformer between Cooper Landing and Moose Pass is resulting in brief power outages in both towns this week.
The first two outages occurred without warning from the local utility Tuesday, and coincided with both the first day of school and with election day. The next outage is planned for tomorrow afternoon, although Chugach Electric hasn’t yet announced a time.
The Anchorage-based co-op, which provides energy to small communities on the central peninsula, is doing routine maintenance to the transformer at Dave’s Creek, says Chugach Electric spokesperson Julie Hasquet.
“Any extended, complicated electric system needs maintenance work. That’s what we’re doing on the Dave’s Creek Transformer right now," she said.
To conduct that maintenance work, the utility has temporarily switched the origin of Cooper Landing and Moose Pass power to a substation, the Lawing Substation, in Seward. It’s that switch that is causing the power outages. Hasquet says they hope to be done with maintenance on the Dave’s Creek transformer by the end of the day Friday, at which time they’ll switch back to running power through there — resulting in another outage.
Weather has been a complicating factor in the progress of maintenance. Heavy rains in the area pushed the planned outage back a day.
“The rain is apparently very heavy down in that area right now. They’re working as quickly and as safely as they can. Sometimes they have to stop, depending on what’s going on with the rain.”
Hasquet says the outage tomorrow is projected to last less than 30 minutes.
In 2021 Chugach Electric announced improvements to aging equipment in the area amid complaints from residents about increasing outages. Hasquet says the maintenance this week is part of that improvement project and is intended to help minimize future, unplanned outages.
Chugach Electric apologized to customers about the unannounced outage Tuesday. Hasquet says it was a coincidence that the outage overlapped with both the start of school and Tuesday’s elections.
“When you have crews working out in the field on electric systems, they’re just focused on getting the work done right, and getting repairs made as quickly and safely as they can. So, that might have been just an oversight by the folks in the field, or just something they’re not even thinking about," she said. "The good news is that both of those outages should have been very short, so their impact should have been minimal on any of those events.”
She says that both of Tuesday’s outages were under 30 minutes.
Hasquet says improvements to the system in the area will continue over the next couple of years. She says tomorrow’s outage will likely happen in the afternoon, though she doesn’t know exactly when that will be.
