Lights go out — again
By Keith E. Domke
Ranger Editor

Deja vu all over again?
For the second time in as many days, and in the same area for close to the same amount of time, the majority of Riverton’s Rocky Mountain Power customers lost electricity Wednesday morning.
This second outage lasted 23 minutes, from 11:11 until 11:34 a.m., said Margaret Oler, spokeswoman for Rocky Mountain Power in Salt Lake City, Utah.
“It was the same thing both days,” she said early Wednesday afternoon. “In both cases, it was because of the installation of new equipment at the substation (on Riverview Road) to expand and increase service in the area.”
The outage again affected 4,360 of Rocky Mountain’s 7,000 Riverton customers.
“Both days, there was work going on in that area,” she said of the substation. “It was unintentional.”
Oler confirmed that the cause each day was different. Wednesday’s outage was because of a blown fuse while Tuesday’s incident was due to a relay problem. However, Oler said she did not know if further installation and testing could cause another similar outage.
“Certainly, we want our customers to have power, and it’s unfortunate the outage occurred,” she said. “The expansion is being done to provide continuous and reliable service to our customers.”
Older added the outages were minimized because crews already were on the scene working.
“Because the crews were there, the outages were minimal,” she said. “Thankfully, they were able to quickly repair the fuse and relay problems.”
The area affected again on Wednesday spread a swath across Riverton from near Central Wyoming College on the city’s northwest side to near Federal Boulevard. Traffic signals along Main Street from College View Drive to East Fifth Street were not working. The signal at Main Street and Federal Boulevard was not affected, as was the case Tuesday.
There were no reports of accidents on streets and no reports of incidents of any kind as a result of either Wednesday’s or Tuesday’s outage, which occurred at 8:56 a.m. and lasted until 9:26 a.m.
“The outage was caused through a problem with the equipment at the Riverton substation on Riverview Road,” RMP spokesman Jeff Hymas said on Tuesday morning after the first outage. “It affected several different circuits.”