Malfunction knocks out power briefly

A brief power outage Thursday evening interrupted electrical service for much of the City and Borough of Juneau.

According to Alaska Electric Light and Power vice president Debbie Driscoll, the outage began a few minutes after 5 p.m. when a control system malfunctioned, interrupting electrical generation. As a result, the CBJ’s electrical grid began rapidly shedding power load and turning out the lights.

AEL&P customers served by the Capitol substation (in the Willoughby District near Gold Creek), the West Juneau substation, the Loop substation, the Auke Bay substation and the Lena substation all lost power. Portions of downtown served by the Second Street substation retained power, as did portions of the Twin Lakes area.

AEL&P had the lights back on within 10-15 minutes once engineers realized the problem.

“We did recognize the issue immediately and took action to restore power,” Driscoll said.


• Contact reporter James Brooks at jbrooks@juneauempire.com or 523-2258.


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