Kodiak Electric Association experienced a major power outage yesterday that affected the Kodiak Benny Benson State Airport, the Coast Guard Base, Bell’s Flats, and out the road system to Chiniak and Pasagshak.
The outage occurred at about 2:00 PM. The airport and Coast Guard Base lost connection to the cooperative’s power grid, however power returned an hour and a half later, and the Bell’s Flats area was back online that evening.
KEA President and CEO Darren Scott said it wasn’t immediately clear what caused the outage.
“We had a fault down the Chiniak/Pasagshak line and that goes kind from the airport out towards the rocket launch and Chiniak,” he said. “We’re still investigating why, but it kind of cascaded through its protection. It has a breaker, and it took out the two adjacent breakers with it.”
It’s the second time in three weeks the airport has had an outage from the cooperative’s grid.
“We thought we’d fixed the problem and as it turns out, there’s something else going on that’s causing the cascade effect. So we’re still trying to investigate that right now,” said Scott.
In the meantime staff will reroute power to affected areas from a different substation to supply more consistent service until the issue can be isolated and resolved.