MP power outage caused by blown $500k transformer
Crews work to set the replacement transformer borrowed from Fairview City in place Wednesday, Aug. 18. Crews worked through the night to restore power to Mt. Pleasant. Recent high heat has lead to increased power consumption, which officials feel played a roll in the power outage.
The Mt Pleasant City Power crew after a long night's work replacing the failed transformer at the 550 West Main substation. L to R: Shane Ward, City Power Superintendent, Cameron Parry, Line Foreman, Kyle Sorenson, Lineman and Tyler Beesley, Lineman.
It was a dark night in parts of Mt. Pleasant on Wednesday, August 18. At about 6:30 p.m. many citizens got a surprise when air conditioners went off, lights went out and fans stopped working.
This happens from time to time in our rural valley, but the event is usually associated with a storm accompanied by high winds or lightening, and never lasts long. But this time it was different. Time ticked by but the power did not come back on. As the sun set many residents were engulfed by complete and utter darkness with no lights and, in a twist of fate, a sky darkened by the new moon.
Record-breaking heat across the Southwest has lasted for days in mid-August, generating an abnormal power demand across many states. In Mt. Pleasant the unprecedented power demand caused one of the two main transformers at the substation, located at 550 West Main to fail. The remaining transformer is able to power only a portion of the city, particularly with the high demand due to the record breaking temperatures.
The failed 46,000-volt transformer is one of 4 transformers in the city. When it failed much of the town went off-the-grid. Now, some people think that being “off the grid” is the way to go, but the citizens of Mt Pleasant didn’t have that in mind on that sweltering Wednesday night when temperatures hit a record high.
The crew at Mt. Pleasant City Power spent the long, dark night working to get the problem fixed. When morning came and the power was restored Power Superintendent Shane Ward said that all the pieces came together to get a replacement transformer installed in just one night. “It could have been several days to restore power for the affected residents” he claims, if not for a series of lucky breaks.
A replacement transformer was located in Fairview where they just happened to have a spare; and they were able to loan it to Mt. Pleasant. If not for that replacement it would have been 3-5 days to get another transformer, and the Mt. Pleasant Power Company would have been forced to do rolling blackouts in the city much as they do in California.
Installation of the several-ton, $500,000 unit borrowed from Fairview was not exactly easy. Crews from Spring City, Fairview, Rocky Mountain Power and even Springville showed up to help. The transformer from Fairview was hauled to Mt. Pleasant with the help of Todd Beesley from MKJ Construction.
Beesley along with Mountain Crane Service from Spanish Fork helped with the installation. After almost 12 hours of work the borrowed transformer was in place and running. Power was restored bit by bit to the affected residents and by 7:30 AM the sun was up, and the power was back on.
Ward, who has been with the city power department for 18 years, said there has never been a total transformer failure in all his years with the company. He attributes the event to the record power demand brought on by the extreme heat.
Line Foreman Cameron Parry and his crew talked about the new substation by the Contoy Arena, saying that they hoped to have it up and running within the next couple of months, helping to mitigate power issues for Mt Pleasant in the future. Ward points out that they are “delayed in getting the final pieces to finish it due to long lead times from suppliers due to the Corona virus.”
“This will give our city a total of three substation transformers once we get the new sub on line and the one that went bad, repaired and back in service,” he said.
Meanwhile the transformer that failed at the substation on West Main will hopefully be repaired. Once that is done the swap will be made and the transformer on loan from Fairview City will be returned to them.
Once again, we are reminded of the need to conserve resources like water and power. Ward reminds residents that rebates, and incentives are available for those replacing old appliances with energy-efficient ones. Even light bulbs make a difference, he wants to point out. Wasatch Academy was recently given over $1,000 when they replaced all their lighting with LED fixtures.
According to information available on the Mt. Pleasant City and Utah Associated Municipal System (UAMPS) websites, those who purchase a qualifying clothes washer, refrigerator, dishwasher, room A/C unit, water heater, or lighting fixtures may qualify for cash back through the Cool Cash Incentive Program.
For example, the site says that many Utah families believe upgrading air conditioning means moving from a rooftop evaporative cooler to central air conditioning. But Utah’s climate is ideal for evaporative cooling. Evaporative cooling is no longer confined to rooftops.
Evaporative systems can be installed indoors, and vented throughout your house through existing vents (called whole-house evaporative cooling). Evaporative cooling will create significant savings on your summer electricity costs compared to central air conditioning. Because evaporative systems save energy, participating UAMPS energy partners are offering cash incentives when you purchase a new, replacement, premium, or whole-house evaporative system.
However, if you are planning on installing a central air conditioning system, proper equipment, installation, operation and maintenance will make a big difference in the level of efficiency, and therefore cost of your new system. So participating UAMPS energy partners will offer incentives for high efficiency appliances, properly sized and properly installed systems.
For more information, visit the UAMPS website at https://www.uamps.com. Click on the Cool Cash Program link found under “Smart Energy” at the top of the page.
