Power spikes shut down power twice in past month
Power outages — they're the reason why patrons of Dale's Supermarket were stuck shopping in the dark on Aug. 23. Or why residents of east Hillsboro had to use flashlights in their homes the evening of Sept. 3.
A similar incident occurred on the 12th of August.
What caused these citywide blackouts? A surge in power from KP&L, which supplies the city's power, according to Hillsboro City Administrator Steve Garrett.
"These are the first two episodes since I've been here," he said.
On those days, power "spikes" came through the system and overloaded the city's electrical substation. To protect itself from damage, the substation automatically shut down, Garrett said.
That cut power to the entire city. And in the case of the incident of Aug. 23, the spike was so strong that it cut power to Newton and parts of Hutchinson as well.
To remedy the problem, city employee Mike Duerksen headed for the substation and turned it back on.
Also in the case of Aug. 23, the spike caused another problem: it damaged a transformer near Dale's Supermarket on West Grand.
Garrett hopes that these citywide outages will just be anomalies and not the start of a larger trend.
"I'm concerned that it could be with all the radical changes at KP&L," Garrett said.
That's because the number of service personnel has been reduced since the energy company's transformation into Westar.
But aside from the occasional citywide blackout, power outages still do occur for more local reasons.
On the night of Tuesday, Sept. 3, the east side of Hillsboro experienced a power outage lasting approximately an hour and a half.
The city is divided into two electric zones, the east leg and the west leg, and apparently a device known as a "jumper" went bad on the east side of town. A jumper connects a power line to an electric pole, then transfers power to an adjacent line.
The bad jumper caused the power line to "single phase," meaning it was sending out a very low voltage of power. Some houses were completely dark, while others had one light on, Garrett said.
To solve the problem, the city had to kill power completely to the east side, then fix a new jumper. The power was restored around 10:30 p.m., Garrett said.
While the city can't control power spikes from KP&L, it's doing all it can to protect local lines from harm by keeping lines free of tree limbs, Garrett said.
