Petersburg’s electric utility is back on hydroelectric power after running back-up diesel generators for 28 hours early this week.
The community suffered a power outage around 2 p.m. Sunday. Customers in Wrangell and Ketchikan were not impacted. Petersburg Municipal Power and Light’s back up diesels were started later that afternoon. The cause of the problem has been narrowed down to an underwater cable near Vank Island between Wrangell and Petersburg.
PMPL superintendent Karl Hagerman writes in an email that the Southeast Alaska Power Agency, or SEAPA, is investigating a fault in that cable. The wholesale power provider has a spare cable on that part of the regional power grid and switched to that spare Monday. Petersburg was able to power down diesel generators by 6 p.m. Monday with the restoration of the electrical supply from Tyee Lake south of Wrangell.
SEAPA has to first find the problem spot on the marine cable and then repair it.
