The City of Red Deer Electric Light and Power Department had its hands full on Tuesday.
Not only did city crews respond to an extensive power outage, which intermittently left numerous neighbourhoods in the dark, they were also busy dealing with reports of a transformer fire that turned out to be a false alarm.
“It was a busy day,” admitted department manager Jim Jorgensen.
Unrelated to the power outage, city crews were working on a transformer, which transfers electrical energy from one circuit to another, near 6705 Golden West Ave.
“When the crews went to close everything up, something was bumped and there was a flash and I believe a third party called in but there was no fire,” Jorgensen said.
“Emergency Services turned around and went home and all was well.”
Earlier in the day, city crews were working to restore power after an extensive outage effected the south and east ends of the city.
The power went out at 9:50 a.m. and crews were still investigating the cause at Substation 17 at the intersection of 30th Avenue and 22nd Street after it was restored.
Jorgensen said an early indication is that something in the substation triggered the protection circuitry to initiate.
“It took a little time for us to sort out,” he said.
“It could have been a far longer outage but crews ran through the processes as fast as they could and all things being equal we got everything back up and running.”
jjones@www.reddeeradvocate.com