Small Town News

Power outage due to BPA error

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About 7, 000 Mason County residents and businesses experienced an enormous power outage Wednesday May 25, which Mason County PUD 3 is now attributing to a Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) error.

The outage, which began at about 10:10 a.m. on Wednesday May 25, affected three PUD 3 substations, including, Mountain View, Johns Prairie and Mason substations.

These substations serve all of the City of Shelton, Johns Prairie, Clo-quallum, Brockdale, portions of Arcadia and Highway 3 out to Bayshore. All of these areas lost power until about 11 a.m.

There were actually two outages. Power was briefly restored once, then went out again for twenty minutes or so.

PUD 3 Manager Wyla Wood briefed the PUD commission on the outage during the commission's special meeting on Tuesday, May 31.

"Both of the outages were caused by inappropriate actions by some Bonneville people who were doing work at the substation," Wood said.

BPA spokesman Doug Johnson said that the situation was an accident resulting from a routine repair.

"We had somebody out at one of our substations replacing a meter board," he said. "We're looking a little further to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Wood told the commissioners that she talked with a manager at BPA and hoped to have an opportunity to express her disappointment with BPA management soon.

"Once is bad enough but to do it twice," she said. "They need to step it up on their thoughtfulness."

PUD 3 spokesperson Joel Myer clarified what Wood meant by "inappropriate actions" by Bonneville."

"They were doing some maintenance ... and in the process of doing their maintenance, they knocked out the feed to the Mountainview, Johns Prairie and Mason Substations.

Myer said there was no resulting damage to any PUD 3 equipment.

"It just de-energized everything," he said.

That was not the case for PUD 3 customers, Commissioner Bruce Jor-genson said.

"For your information, it blew up my cable box," he said.

Wood said that the PUD would hold Bonneville responsible for such damage.

"We did put Bonneville on notice that if any damage claims come to us we will be forwarding them along," she said.

BPA has blamed the error on equipment, Wood said.

"It was a relatively new meter that they have up there and that was the excuse that was given," she said. "Being the guinea pig certainly does not make it any easier."

"We did put Bonneville on notice that if any damage claims come to us we will be forwarding them along."



Copyright 2011 Shelton-Mason County Journal, Shelton, Washington. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from SmallTownPapers, Inc.

© 2011 Shelton-Mason County Journal Shelton, Washington. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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