Petersburg experienced a power outage this morning after a supplier’s feed went offline.
The town gets much of its electricity from a regional hydropower supplier called Southeast Alaska Power Agency, or SEAPA, which also feeds power to Wrangell and Ketchikan. Those two communities also reported outages Oct. 19.
SEAPA was doing work on its Tyee station and took it offline on short notice this morning, according to Petersburg’s Utility Director, Steve Harbour.
“They gave us a call and said, ‘Hey can you shut down, can you go on diesels at 9:30?’ That was the plan,” Harbour told KFSK around 9:40 a.m.
Power went out several minutes before then.
He said Borough staff were in the process of switching the town onto diesel-generated power when the SEAPA feed went offline, and lights went out across town.
“It’s a holiday for us today,” Harbour noted. “But we got a decent crew to come in, and we should be restored like normal.”
Borough staff have been working to restore power in Petersburg this morning. The town will run on its fleet of diesel generators until SEAPA’s hydropower feed is back online.
Harbour anticipates that could be around mid-afternoon, he said in a 12:40 p.m. update.
This is a developing story.
