Circuit breaker causes six-hour blackout 05/08/01

Electrical power was lost by Douglas residents for nearly six hour Sunday night due to a equipment failure, according to Delia Willis of APS

An equipment failure at the Fairview Substation in Douglas caused a power outage affecting 6,913 customers. The power went out at 6:47 p.m. Sunday and wasn’t restored until 12:43 a.m. Monday.

Willis said there was a mechanical problem in the 12,000-volt power circuit breaker at the substation. They were able to alleviate the problem by bypassing the circuit breaker. A substation maintenance crew from the Saguaro Power Plant in Tucson came in to fix the problem.

No outside influences. like wind or lightning strikes, were involved in the mechanical failure.

There was an additional power failure west of Douglas, near Cochise College, but the power was restored there in about one hour. The related failure was able to be fixed much quicker because the power source for the area was much more easily isolated.

http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?show=localnews&pnpID=777&NewsID=97828&on=0

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), May 09, 2001