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For immediate release
April 21, 2010 at 3:38pm
For more information, contact
Patti Bogan, 762-4736 (desk), 242-0704 (cell)

Chugach customers experience short power outage

A power outage this afternoon left about 2,100 customers without power for up to 18 minutes. A damaged guy wire on a transmission line structure near Mile 98 of the Seward Highway snapped, flipping the guy wire into the energized lines and tripping protective breakers at Chugach's University and Daves Creek substations. That de-energized the 115-kilovolt transmission line between Anchorage and Cooper Landing, cutting power flow to customers in Indian, Bird, Girdwood, Portage, Whittier, Hope and Summit Lake at 1:39 p.m.

Chugach isolated the damaged section of transmission line between Indian and Girdwood, and re-energized the line from the north and the south in order to feed those communities. Power was restored to all customers by 1:57 p.m.

The Kenai Peninsula will continue to operate in an islanded condition separated from the rest of the Railbelt grid until repairs are completed this evening.

Chugach is the largest electric utility in Alaska, providing power for Alaskans throughout the Railbelt through retail, wholesale and economy energy sales.