More than 11,000 Pacific Power customers have service restored after hour-long outage; cause determined

(Update: Power restored; info on cause from Pacific Power, disputed by PGE)

MADRAS, Ore. (KTVZ) – A utility maintenance crew accidentally caused a widespread Central Oregon power outage late Tuesday morning, knocking out service for about an hour to more than 11,000 Pacific Power customers from Crooked River Ranch to west of Culver and Madras and north to Warm Springs.

According to the utility’s outage map, all of the outages were reported at 11:09 a.m. and affected Pacific Power customers in several locations.

The status for each said the cause was a damaged line, that crews had been notified and that the estimated time for power restoration was before 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.

However, Pacific Power representative Simon Gutierrez told KTVZ News power was restored to affected customers at 12:09 p.m., an hour after the outage was reported.

Gutierrez said it appeared a crew with another utility, Portland General Electric, "was doing some maintenance in the area and had a fault, which impacted downstream supply to our Cove substation.”

However, PGE spokesman Drew Hanson, told KTVZ News, "There isn’t any indication at this time that the maintenance happening on the PGE system upstream from Pacific Power’s Cove substation was the cause of this morning’s outage."