Power was restored to 11,600 homes and businesses that lost electricity Wednesday afternoon in and around Durango.
The mass outage began about 1:50 p.m. Wednesday and stretched from Durango West all the way north along U.S. Highway 550 past Trimble Lane.
Power was restored at 2:52 p.m. to most homes and businesses before being fully restored at 4:18 p.m. to about 1,500 customers in the Animas Valley, said La Plata Electric Association spokeswoman Sara Knight.
Knight said LPEA’s teams found the outage originated from the utility’s substation in Bodo Park.
A co-tenant of the substation was performing planned system work and accidentally caused an issue in the substation’s electrical system. Knight did not provide the identity of the co-tenant citing privacy concerns.
“The issue also disrupted our communications system, which usually allows us to quickly restore power remotely,” Knight said in a text to The Durango Herald.
sedmondson@durangoherald.com
