Entire Kenai loses power Monday morning </MCC HEAD>

Story last updated at 8:13 AM on Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Entire Kenai loses power Monday morning

STAFF REPORT

A power outage at about 8 a.m. Monday morning shut down power to the entire Homer Electric Association service area for about two hours. Power was lost to 28,000 customers from Sterling to Homer and the Kachemak Bay south-side villages. Power started to come back at 10 a.m. and was fully restored by 10:40 a.m.

The outage resulted from a problem with a transmission line linking the Kenai Peninsula to Anchorage. HEA and Chugach Electric engineers are still investigating the cause of the problem, said HEA spokesman Joe Gallagher.

Coincidentally, the outage happened as ash from an eruption of Redoubt Volcano drifted north to Cantwell and Talkeetna and the Matanuska and Susitna valley areas. Gallagher said there is no connection between the ashfall and the outage.

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