Columbus, Neb. – Two planned outages will take place from 1 to 5 p.m. for customers in Boyd County as well as parts of Holt and Knox Counties on May 28 and 31, to repair an emergent issue on a Western Area Power Association (WAPA) transmission line.
The outage will impact Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) customers in the communities of Butte, Bristow, and Lynch, as well as the Village of Spencer and Niobrara Valley Electric Membership Corporation customers in rural Boyd County, northwestern Knox County, and northern Holt County.
This planned outage is unrelated to previous planned outages observed so upgrades can be made to the local substation that serves the growing load in the area.
“WAPA has identified and notified NPPD of a critical issue on their transmission line connected to NPPD’s substation that needs repaired as soon as possible,” noted NPPD Account Manager Brittney Koenig. “In order to make the needed repairs, an outage must be taken to the transmission line, which will require an outage to the substation serving the area as well. If these repairs are not made prior to the summer load ramping up, it could impact the ability to serve electricity to the area in the coming months.”
Work to upgrade the transformer at the substation is progressing, and one more outage will be observed after summer when the work is completed, to return the system to normal operation. The system is currently connected to a mobile substation with a higher capacity to serve load. This will allow NPPD to serve the growing electric demand in the area, until the new transformer is installed at the permanent substation.
“I want to thank everyone in the affected areas for your continued patience and understanding as we work through this unforeseen event,” adds Koenig, “We understand these outages are not convenient, but we want to ensure the system is in proper operating condition heading into the hottest months of the year.”
Customers will be notified via phone of the time and date for the planned outages. NPPD works closely with the impacted public power companies and communities to schedule any planned outages.
