New dates selected for planned outages in Wheeler County
Published 1:40 pm Thursday, August 30, 2018
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Bonneville Power Administration canceled a series of planned power outages in Wheeler County, but added two additional less-invasive outages this fall.
The Portland-based power marketing agency announced Monday that it had canceled the final date in a series of four planned 14-hour outages across Wheeler County, originally slated to run from Sept. 7 through Sept. 8.
The power authority had originally deemed the outages necessary in order to install new equipment at a local substation, but canceled the first three outages in July, following pushback from Wheeler County residents concerned about the lack of notice and the impact on the region’s summer tourism season.
Instead, BPA has selected two new dates for outages, each of which will only last approximately seven hours. The first outage is slated to begin at 11 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 12, and to conclude at 6 a.m. on Sept. 13. The second is scheduled to begin at 11 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 16, and end at 6 a.m. the following morning.
John Tyler, spokesman for the power authority, said the outages were pushed back to better account for wildfires and summer tourism impacts.