Various problems cause local outages

A Friday power outage that affected 1,670 customers was caused by pole fire started by a faulty insulator.

Sierra Pacific Power Co. spokeswoman Faye Anderson said Tuesday that the 9:08 p.m. outage lasted about an hour.

"The insulator that anchors and holds the wire away from the pole failed and caused the wire to drop on the crossarm of the power pole," Anderson said.

Customers in the area of the Carson substation on Long Street near Roop were affected by the pole fire. Power remained out until 2 a.m. Saturday for 70 customers living near the Long Street power pole.

Workers arrived at the location and replaced the crossarm, Anderson said.

The hot summer months have been spotted with several power outages caused by blown fuses and sub station problems.

On July 17, about 40 customers in Ash Canyon lost power from 3:23 p.m. to 3:56 p.m. when fuses blew. A smaller section within Ash Canyon also lost power from 8:19 p.m. to 10:10 p.m.

On July 15, a problem at a substation caused 300 southern Carson City residents to be without power from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Anderson said despite an influx of tourists for Hot August Nights, the power grid is not near its peak, which was hit on July 18 at 1,744 megawatts.

Carson City has six substations in the area to handle the flow of power. They are the Brunswick Substation, east of town; the Carson substation on Long Street; the Curry Street substation downtown; the Emerson substation in North Carson; the Overland substation in South Carson, which is the process of being expanded for better reliability in that area; and a new substation in the Fairview area.