Waking Up Powerless

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

There is an old axiom that states, “Lightning never strikes in the same place twice.” But last week that saying was proven to be a complete myth.

Early on Thursday morning, Aug. 11, lightning struck the last electric transmission pole before the line connects to the Tortoise Substation in Moapa. Tortoise is the main entry point of power into the Overton Power District (OPD5) system. The lightning, which, according to OPD5 officials, struck at around 3:00 a.m., knocked out power to the entire system including all residents of Moapa, Moapa Valley, Mesquite, Bunkerville, Lincoln County and even Scenic, Arizona.

Repairs to bring the power back online took more than ten hours on Thursday.
Lightning strikes twice

But it wasn’t the first time that lightning had visited that particular three-pole wooden structure. A similar event took place in March of 2016 when lightning hit the same structure on a Sunday afternoon causing a complete system outage that lasted all night and into the next morning.

This time it was a little different, according to OPD5 General Manager Mendis Cooper. He explained that, in 2016, the lightning hit the center pole in the structure. Because of that, it was a very difficult one to fix. Last week, it was one of the outside poles that was struck.

“So our guys had a good idea of what it would take to fix it and what they needed to do,” Cooper said.
The notification came from NV Energy at around 3 am that their breaker at Reid Gardner had opened because of a fault on the OPD5 system, Cooper explained. That line is the main transmission line connecting the OPD5 system to the regional power grid; and the only one with the capacity to feed the entire system.

“According to their software, the problem was two miles from their breaker,” Cooper said. “And that is right at Tortoise Substation. So our crews knew right where to go and they were dispatched up there right away.”

Making a plan
The crews found the pole on fire at that location. They assessed the situation and quickly began forming a plan.
Cooper said that there was a necessary safety delay from the grid-side source of the line before work could actually begin.
“Our crews had to wait for a transmission tag to be issued from upline,” Cooper said.

This is standard procedure in the industry where a full inspection must be made of all the equipment upline to make sure that there is a visual opening, Cooper said.
“Unfortunately, somebody had to come out from Las Vegas to perform that visual inspection,” he said.

But there was no time lost, Cooper added. “While we were waiting for that visual clearance, our guys were doing a lot of prep work,” he said. “They were gathering up materials and equipment so that everything was ready on site to hit the ground running.”

What happened next was a well coordinated effort involving the entire personnel of OPD5 as well as crews from three other entities in the region.

Firefighters from the Moapa Valley Fire District were called to the scene to help put the fire out.
“A pole fire is a lot like having a single log burning,” Cooper said. “You see a small flame and it burns at a pace that is a lot faster than you want it to. But it also doesn’t get consumed super fast either.”
The firefighters responded and were able to extinguish the fire within about 10 minutes, Cooper said.

All hands on deck
Once the fire was out, the full force of the OPD5 team was brought to bear in solving the problem and getting the power up and running again.
“Our whole company had assignments,” Cooper said. “We had all 16 of our linemen there working on various equipment. Our substation staff was there to assist and our engineering team were all helping.

We had staff that were setting up generators at our office sites which we offered to keep people in the communities cool. And some of our staff even took food and drinks out to the crews. Everyone was doing something.”

Lincoln County Power, which is fed through the Tortoise Substation, sent a crew of lineman and equipment to assist in the repairs.

Also responding with a line crew and bucket truck was Dixie Power out of St. George. Dixie Power provides electricity to the Littlefield, Beaver Dam and Scenic, Arizona communities. Cooper explained that two weeks ago, a storm blew down some power poles feeding into the Scenic community. At that time, the company had asked OPD5 to supply Scenic with power while they made repairs to their line. That is why the Scenic community was also affected by Thursday’s outage.

“Since they had customers involved too, Dixie Power told us that they would send down a crew to help us out with the repairs,” Cooper said. “So it ended up being a really good coordinated effort.”

Public safety top of mind
Cooper said that a major concern was for the safety of the public in the August heat. He acknowledged the good fortune of Thursday being somewhat overcast and lower temperatures than normal. But the OPD5 crews knew the heat was coming and that they needed to work fast.

“The morning hours are hot enough as it is during August,” he said. “But we were very concerned about people being in their homes – especially the elderly and otherwise infirm – during the heat of the afternoon. So we were working as hard and as fast as we could to get everything back on before that hottest part of the day.”

The crews were successful in that. They began re-energizing the substation at around 1:05 pm. Then they began the process of bringing the power system back on in stages to protect the delicate equipment. By 2 pm the entire system was back up and running.

Emergency response
While all of this was going on, local emergency response teams were mobilizing resources to be at the ready for area residents in need.

In Moapa Valley, MVFD Chief Stephen Neel coordinated with Clark County Emergency Management to set up cooling stations in the community. These were set up at the Fine Arts building at the Fairgrounds and at Overton Fire Station #74.

Two large swamp coolers were brought in to the Fine Arts Building by county workers. Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick’s staff coordinated with MVFD to make water and other resources available at the stations.

MedicWest ambulance service was on standby at the Fairgrounds in case there was a need.
“Our supervisor got the call about the power outage and sent us here for the day so we could assist anyone with a health issue,” said MedicWest EMT Larissa Liu.

Robbin’s Nest Manager Linda Snyder said she started receiving calls from her senior residents at 4:00 a.m. “I immediately sent a mass email to all the residents, so anyone with a phone could receive information about the power outage,” she stated.

A phone tree was also started so everyone could stay informed and receive updates, Snyder said.
Local Metro officers also were on hand, some going door to door, to make sure the elderly had everything they needed.

Melissa Rowland and her daughter Kristie Robinson came to the Fairgrounds to cool off, along with their neighbor Vicki LaDuke.

Rowland was very impressed with the fire department, saying “They acted fast to get the word out, especially to seniors. I was prepared to go sit in my car with the air conditioning on. Then I saw the information on Facebook about coming here.”

Similar things were going on in Mesquite. Mesquite’s emergency command center sprang into action checking on vulnerable parts of the community.
“We have been checking in with all of the Assisted Living facilities in the community to make sure their needs are met,” said Mesquite Fire and Rescue spokesman Spencer Lewis in an interview on Thursday morning. “Everyone is fine now and we can put additional plans in place to take care of folks depending on how long the outage lasts.”

Mesa View Regional Hospital was open and operational with backup power throughout the outage. The hospital provided oxygen supply services to residents who needed it, as well as a cool place to stay during the outage.

The major casino resorts were also open with backup power in operation. These local businesses also provided a cool place for local residents to spend time and await the return of power. The Eureka Resort quickly set up a a cooling station for public use as well.

“The private sector stepped upfor us in a big way and we appreciate that,” said Mesquite Fire Chief Jayson Andrus. “But, of course, that is not the ideal situation.”

Andrus said that he will be working with the Mayor and City Council in coming weeks to find funding for more backup generation of power for the Senior Center and the Rec Center so that public cooling stations can be provided in situations like this.

Andrus also stated that communication was open and valuable with OPD5 during the outage. “We were getting hourly updates from Kristi Eames at OPD,” he said. “She did a great job of keeping us informed.”

Plans for future
Cooper said that the district is already addressing the problem of having only one transmission line into its system. A second major transmission line connecting OPD5’s Tortoise station to the grid at Reid Gardner is already planned and is expected to begin construction in the first quarter of 2023. Once construction on the second line begins, it will take about three months to complete it, Cooper said.

“You don’t want to say that it will NEVER happen again,” Cooper said, “but a second line would certainly provide redundancy to prevent it. We would just de-energize one line and energize the other one. It would be a very brief outage.”