Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Lightning deemed cause of blackout

Thousands lost power Friday in Ketchum and Sun Valley

By JON DUVAL
Express Staff Writer

A lightning strike at an Idaho Power substation in Sun Valley Friday night has been deemed the likely cause of a power outage that disrupted gatherings throughout Ketchum and Sun Valley.

The outage at 8:47 p.m. caused 4,281 Idaho Power customers to lose electricity for about three hours, Idaho Power spokeswoman Stephanie McCurdy said. McCurdy said power was restored to all customers by 11:52 p.m.

McCurdy said a substation is used to transform one voltage to another and for protecting and controlling transmission and distribution lines.

"Think of a substation as being an on-ramp or off-ramp from an interstate or an intersection connecting an arterial to a collector road," McCurdy said.

Businesses and restaurants on the east side of Main Street in Ketchum lost power, as did businesses in Sun Valley Village.

Jon Duval: jduval@mtexpress.com



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