Power outage affects more than 2,000 last week

A power outage last Wednesday night, July 22, lasting well into the next morning, affected more than 2,000 customers of Rocky Mountain Power, in the Lovell area, a company spokesman said this week.

Power went out just before 11 p.m. July 22 and stayed out for more than three hours, longer for some residents.

Rocky Mountain Senior Communications Specialist Jona Whitesides said the outage was caused by a “damaged pole top and lines down that connect into a substation” in the Lovell area. The Lovell Volunteer Fire Department was called to a “transformer on fire” at the Merit Energy oilfield west of Byron at 10:52 p.m. July 22, though Whitesides could not confirm whether the two incidents were related.

He said the outage initially affected 2,113 customers, with power restored to 1,443 customers by 2:04 a.m. on July 23 and 1,952 customers by 6:30 a.m. Final restoration took place by 2:38 p.m. on July 23.