Two fall power outages planned for the Wendover area
Wells Rural Electric Company members in Wendover and West Wendover will experience a pair of planned outages this fall as Bonneville Power Administration completes a modernization project at the Minidoka substation that provides electricity to the area. The first outage will be Tuesday, September 17, at 8:00 a.m. and last for approximately eight hours while workers install equipment at the substation that will allow power to remain on during the six-week project. The second outage will be on Tuesday, October 29, at 8:00 a.m. and last approximately eight hours while workers remove the equipment and reconnect to the substation when the project is completed.
While there is never a good time to be without electricity, grid modernization is important for future reliability, safety and security. BPA’s outage will affect several other utilities who receive power from the Minidoka substation and WREC worked as part of a group effort to find dates and times that all those involved could manage. The outages are taking place during the day for safety reasons so that crews are not working in the dark. In addition, WREC’s crews have developed a lengthy list of projects to complete in the area while the power is down. These projects should contribute to overall system reliability in the area and help avoid possible planned or unplanned outages in the future. If you have any questions, please call your local WREC office at (775) 664-2204.
