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Reliability manager Eric Hoyes: lightning, wildlife and aging breakers behind recent multi-station outages
Summary
Reliability manager Eric Hoyes told the utility board that a June 22 lightning strike and subsequent wildlife and equipment failures caused several substations to go offline, leaving many residents without power for roughly 4–6 hours and prompting plans for wildlife protection and equipment upgrades.
Eric Hoyes, the utility’s reliability presenter, told the board the June 22 lightning strike damaged a phase breaker that protected a transformer and caused an entire substation to go offline, producing outages that affected residents and businesses for several hours. He said crews repowered some circuits by about 10:30 a.m., repaired and swapped parts from inventory, and had the final breaker back in service by roughly 3:00 a.m.; different breakers were out for varying periods (breaker 4 about 1½ hours; breakers 2 and 3 about 4 hours; breaker 1 about 6 hours). (Speaker: Eric Hoyes)
The board asked about resident impacts; members were told households on affected circuits experienced roughly 4–6 hours without power. The board also pressed staff about why residents were not notified sooner. The communications director acknowledged gaps in a formal notification protocol, said some posts were made externally (Nick Coulter posted on the city’s page), and said staff are still training on systems needed to send direct notices. (Speakers: Chair; Communications director)
Operations staff described a string of follow-on problems in the two weeks after June 22: additional substation incidents included wildlife incursions (squirrels and birds were cited as causes) and at least one older breaker that welded shut during switching operations. Staff said a spare breaker in inventory — whose internal vacuum-tube parts happened to match older Westinghouse components — allowed repairs to proceed more quickly than replacement would have. Management concluded the outages underscore a need to expand wildlife protection inside substations and to replace aging breakers and other legacy equipment. (Speakers: Utilities director; Reliability manager)
Board members were told the communication shortfall partly reflected staff workload and staggered training on the utility’s new customer systems. Staff said a customer information system (CITI) is slated to go live by Aug. 31, which they expect will enable direct, automated contact with customers. Until that system is fully operational, staff said they will mirror certain protections used by adjacent energy providers and increase internal wildlife protection and spare-equipment inventories. (Speakers: Communications director; Utilities director)
Why it matters: prolonged outages across substations affected residents for multiple hours and exposed operational risks from wildlife and decades-old equipment. The utility is planning targeted upgrades, more wildlife protection, and improved customer notifications as immediate next steps. The board asked staff to return with timelines and cost estimates for the recommended changes. (Speakers: multiple)
