Relay trip causes power outage

Patty Ramus
More than 15,000 Alpena Power Company customers were without electricity Tuesday morning for nearly an hour after Alpena Power experienced a complete loss of incoming electricity to its system.

According to Alpena Power Vice President Elaine Orr, the outage occurred at 7:52 a.m. At that time International Transmission Company was performing routine maintenance work at its 138,000 volt substation on Four Mile Road.

During ITC’s procedures a relay tripped, causing all four of its circuit breakers at the substation to open and resulted in a complete loss of incoming electricity to Alpena Power’s system.

ITC owns and operates the transmission infrastructure over which power is delivered to Alpena Power. The transmission system was previously owned by Consumers Energy.

Orr said once ITC employees were able to close all circuit breakers and Alpena Power employees worked quickly to restore power to Alpena’s system. Power service was restored to customers by 8:45 a.m.

“We understand this situation was a major inconvenience for all our customers. ITC literally ‘pulled the plug’ on Alpena. We were fortunate the problem could be quickly identified and fixed,” she said in a press release. “The last (time) I spoke with ITC they were continuing to investigate the events from this morning.”

ITC could not be reached for comment.

The outage affected all of Alpena Power’s customers except those in Hillman. Alpena Power is an investor-owned electric distribution company serving parts of Alpena, Montmorency and Alcona counties, Orr said.

Presque Isle Electric & Gas Co-op and Consumers Energy both reported no power outages in their systems.

Michael Szor, Alpena County 911/emergency services coordinator, said emergency services remained online. The 911 center, Alpena City Public Safety Facility, Alpena County Jail, Alpena Regional Medical Center, Alpena County Courthouse and District Health Department No. 4 building remained operational under emergency power. The WATZ and WHSB radio stations continued to broadcast.

“The lights flickered a little and we continued to receive calls as normal. Dispatch was not interrupted at all,” he said of central dispatch.

The Alpena County Emergency Operations Center contacted and advised state and area 911 centers of the situation. The EOC also reported the outage to the Michigan State Police Emergency Management and Homeland Security Division Region 7 manager.

The EOC activated the county’s 800 MHz radio communication plan. The plan gives emergency service providers within the county the ability to communicate with state, region, county and local agencies, Szor said.

“This event tested our abilities to continue public safety operations in an emergency. I believe, although there is always room for improvements, that all the emergency response agencies were prepared for this type of event and that continued planning through our local emergency planning teams will continue to enhance our abilities to protect our citizens and visitors,” he said in a press release.

The Michigan State Police Alpena Post, Alpena County Sheriff Department and Alpena Police Department all reported no traffic accidents resulting from the power outage.

Alpena Deputy Police Chief Kim Miller said an officer was sent to assist at the intersection of Third Avenue and Ripley Boulevard for Ella White School students crossing the street to go to school.

Miller said it’s rare for all of the city’s traffic lights to be out at once because outages are usually localized to certain areas.

“Considering all the traffic lights were out, it went very well,” he said.

Sheriff Steve Kieliszewski said when traffic signals aren’t functioning due to an outage, motorists are required to treat the intersection as a four-way stop.

“I observed most individuals were doing that,” he said.

Patty Ramus can be reached via e-mail at pramus@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5687.