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Carthage water utility says two unusual outages at SPA substation in one week caused by separate events
Summary
The general manager of Carthage Water & Electric told the City Council that two separate outages at the SPA substation — one last week and another the morning of March 11 — cut power to the city. The utility and the Southwest Power Administration are investigating; SPA will replace damaged switchgear and take preventive steps, the manager said.
Chuck Bryant, general manager of Carthage Water and Electric Plant, told the City Council on March 11 that the city experienced two separate outages linked to the Southwest Power Administration (SPA) substation south of Carthage — one the previous Monday and a second the morning of March 11. "When that happens, it shuts the power off to the entire city," Bryant said, describing how a relay or switch opens to protect transformers when a fault occurs.
Bryant said Carthage receives transmission power on 161 kV lines that step down through two transformers at the SPA site; one transformer feeds Carthage Water and Electric and the other is used by the neighboring utility. He described last week's event as an unexplained arc or fault that triggered protection and opened breakers; security video from the school district captured an apparent explosion at roughly 4 p.m. that day. "We did not find anything" obvious in the field after the first event, he said, and SPA's investigation continued.
The second incident occurred at about 7:00 a.m. on March 11 and involved an arc across switchgear that Bryant said measured about 14,000 amps and produced a large fireball. City crews and SPA staff isolated the damaged breaker, re-energized the substation and restored service. "It appears to be, by all indications, a piece of equipment failure in the switch gear, on the SPA side," Bryant said.
Bryant said the transformers were not damaged and called the back-to-back events "very unusual" given decades of relatively few outages at that site. He said SPA — a federal agency within the U.S. Department of Energy — will "go back and do some more investigating" into the first event and will replace equipment that might have been affected by the arc and take preventive measures moving forward.
Bryant asked residents and businesses to follow CWP on social media for up-to-date information and said CWP maintains direct communications with large industrial customers and the school district during such incidents. He apologized for the timing of the outages, noting the difficulty when outages occur in the morning while families prepare for school.
Council members thanked Bryant for the report and acknowledged the limits of the city's authority at the federal-owned substation. Bryant named Kevin Emery as CWP's electric distribution systems manager and said local crews are typically first responders at the site but cannot perform repairs inside SPA's fenced substation. He said SPA leadership understands the city's frustration and has committed additional investigation and equipment replacement as needed.
The discussion was informational; no council action was recorded on the substation matter during the meeting.
