Crane hits Pacific Power line, causes SE Bend blackout after Central Electric Co-Op ends outage that affected 8,000
(Update: Adding video)
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – About 1,300 Pacific Power customers in SE Bend lost power for a time Friday morning, shortly after Central Electric Cooperative finished restoring power to about 8,000 homes, schools and businesses in east and southeast Bend, ending an outage that lasted several hours for many.
"Our crews are reporting there was a crane that impacted one of our lines," Pacific Power Senior Communications Specialist Simon Gutierrez told KTVZ News.
While the utility's initial estimate was to have power back by 1:30 p.m., Gutierrez said it was restored at 10:47 a.m., after about 45 minutes.
The outage affected many businesses and busy intersections, knocking out traffic signals and turning them into four-way stop situations, with major traffic backups occurring at spots like Third Street and Greenwood Avenue.
The outage coincidentally occurred just as Central Electric crews finished restoring service after the co-op was hit by a larger, longer outage that lasted several hours for thousands.
"We lost the transmission line feeding all the Bend area substations shortly before 5:00 a.m., leaving approximately 8,000 members without power," Brent Ten Pas, CEC's vice president of member and public relations, told KTVZ News.
"Crews patrolled the lines and found insulators had broken off a power pole in southeast Bend," Ten Pas said. "They isolated and brought the other substations back online, restoring power to approximately 3,000 members."
Ten Pas said about 10 a.m. that "crews have replaced the broken insulators and have now brought all members' power back on in southeast Bend."
The outage occurred near the co-op’s Knott Pit substation, and while many had their power restored before 6 a.m., thousands more had to wait longer.
The CEC outage map indicated only a few customers still out by 10 a.m.
Bend-La Pine Schools notified parents that the affected schools were operating on normal schedules and remained open, on normal schedules. They said Caldera High School and High Desert Middle School had their power restored by about 9:30 a.m.
