A component failure in a power transformer in Elkhorn triggered a vast power outage in the northern Wood River Valley Friday night, leaving thousands of residents and visitors without electricity for more than an hour.
The outage—which occurred at about 7 p.m.—cut electricity to approximately 9,000 Idaho Power customers in an area that encompassed Ketchum, Sun Valley, East Fork and other points north of Hailey.
Dennis Lopez, Idaho Power spokesman, said electricity was restored by 8:15 p.m. to all but 2,500 customers in the greater Elkhorn area. Power was restored to all customers in the region by approximately 9:40 p.m., Lopez said.
An Idaho Power customer is defined as an individual, metered account.
Occurring on the first night of one of the busiest weekends of the winter tourist season, the outage left many business operators scrambling but reportedly did not cause any significant injuries or accidents.
"I don't think anything happened in that 45 minutes to an hour that wouldn't have happened on a normal Friday night," said Ron LeBlanc, Ketchum city administrator.
At Sun Valley Resort, where hundreds of families had gathered for Presidents' Day weekend, emergency lighting was employed at the two main hotel facilities, the Sun Valley Lodge and the Sun Valley Inn.
Jack Sibbach, Sun Valley director of marketing and public relations, said the resort's dining facilities were kept open but service was hindered slightly.
"It was an inconvenience to the guests, obviously," Sibbach said. "But I didn't hear any complaints."
At the Sun Valley Ice Rink, a hockey game between the Sun Valley Suns and the Michigan Jets was canceled after the arena's lights went out minutes before the scheduled face-off.
In Hailey, where lights flashed on and off but did not go out, restaurants were uncommonly busy, with some reports indicating that scores of people from the Ketchum area streamed south to entertain themselves outside of the darkness.
Jim Bell, Idaho Power area manager, said the problem originated in one of two power transformers located at the company's Elkhorn substation, at the base of the south side of Dollar Mountain.
Although transformer malfunctions are a "rare occasion," Bell said, such an occurrence in the Ketchum-Sun Valley area does have a dramatic impact on the power grid.
"If anything goes wrong north of Hailey, then that whole grid is taken out," Bell said.
The problem was quickly isolated, Bell said, but logistics required that power be restored to affected areas in stages. An immediate response by Idaho Power crews almost certainly shortened the duration of the outage, he noted.
Bell said reports of a fire at the Elkhorn substation were not entirely accurate. Bolts of electricity that likely emanated from the substation at the time of the transformer malfunction could have been mistaken for a small fire, he noted.
The damaged transformer is still offline, Bell said, but will be fixed and brought back into service.
"We've got some work ahead of us."
Tony Calzacorta, Idaho Power line crew foreman, responds to an emergency at the Idaho Power Elkhorn substation, where a vast power outage originated Friday night. Photo by Willy Cook
