IREA JeffCO/ParkCO power outage

[lazierfan]

High-tension power line breaker tripped causing widespread power outage along the Hwy 285 corridor from Aspen Park to Como a distance of over 60 miles, Jefferson and Park Counties.

IREA is the responsible power vendor and has crews responding. Local community is posting updates:
Pinecam.com • View topic - Power is out!!

 

[lazierfan]

Power restored at 3:03 a.m. to entire stretch of road; firsthand account by IREA rep posting on community website:
Pinecam.com • View topic - Power is out!!

 

[greenthumb]

Did Riley Peak stay up through the outage? Often times, extended power outages in that area cause the site to go down since it doesn't have a generator.

 

[lazierfan]

From IREA Man:
"..The 44,000 volt line was being fed from Como substation (between Jefferson and Fairplay) North to our Shaffers substation near Shaffers Crossing. We believe the line breaking between the two poles with no other obvious trauma like a tree or anything could only have been lightning. This can happen and it might not break for days, weeks or months down the road. As the wire sways and vibrates in the wind it gets weaker and finally breaks. It happens..."


In answer to the Riley Peak question, It looked as though Conifer High School's webcam stayed up during the entire outage; Riley Peak may not have gone down but perhaps others may know?

 

[lazierfan]

This may be another clue as to the 'swiss cheese' outage/non outage in Aspen Park proper:

From IREA Man:
"...Due to federal regulations regarding transmission power lines and an issue with Xcels 115,000 volt source into Aspen Park we were unable to connect to the Xcel source to "close the loop" feeding from the North to the South.
This issue is scheduled to be fixed by September 6th..."

 

[lazierfan]

Scheduled Widespread outage 9/27/13 10:00 p.m. MT

Due to a mechanical failure of an Xcel Energy high voltage switch, it is necessary for Xcel to have an emergency transmission line outage to repair the switch. This outage will affect all IREA customers in the Tiny Town, Conifer and Aspen Park areas. The outage is scheduled for Tuesday Sept. 24th at 10PM and is anticipated to last 5 hours. All IREA customers in the Tiny Town, Conifer and Aspen Park areas will be without power during this time. Other areas included are; South Turkey Creek, Hilldale Pines, North Turkey Creek, up High Drive to Stanley Park. 285 from West Ranch to Green Valley. Pleasant Park Rd out to Critchel and to the end of Kuehster Rd. Hwy 73 to Valley Hi, up Shadow Mtn to Brook Forest. Part of Conifer Mtn around Christopher Dr. On the Evergreen side it will be Upper Bear Creek, Yankee Creek, Squaw Mtn and Blue Valley.
If you live in or near these subdivisions or roads mentioned you can expect to be out.
We apologize in advance for the inconvenience.

 

[lazierfan]

...."Why are more IREA subscribers not affected?
“IREA will back feed power to subscribers on the west side of Shaffers Crossing via the new loop and Como substation,” said Dozier (see the May 10, 2013, Flume).
Dozier was concerned for the subscribers in his district that would be without power. “At least it will be in the middle of the night,” he said.
IREA spokesman Mike Kopp from the Conifer office also expressed concern for the 4,500 subscribers to be inconvenienced this evening. Kopp hoped that the work could be done in the projected five-hour time frame, which would mean the outage would end around 3 a.m. Wednesday....."