Substation Failure Causes Outage

Lightning Arrester Had To Be Replaced

Chris Cash with the Rogers Street Department directs traffic Tuesday at Eighth and Walnut streets during a power outage. Much of the downtown area was without electricity for part of the afternoon.

Chris Cash with the Rogers Street Department directs traffic Tuesday at Eighth and Walnut streets during a power outage. Much of the downtown area was without electricity for part of the afternoon.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

— More than 5,100 people were without power in Rogers when a piece of substation equipment failed, according to officials.

A lightning arrester causing the outage and had to be replaced, said Kacee Kirschvink, spokeswoman with Southwestern Electric Power Company. The outage appeared to primarily impact the eastern portion of the city.

Once the arrester was replaced, electricity came back on. The outage lasted about 90 minutes.

At A Glance

Power Out

An estimated 5,171 people lost power Tuesday afternoon, according swepco.com. Southwestern Electric Power Company supplies power to more than 20,000 people in Benton County.

Source: www.swepco.com/outages

The lightning arrester’s purpose is to absorb power from a surge and it would not necessarily have failed immediately after a power surge, Kirschvink said.

About 5,150 people were without power in the Rogers area, Kirschvink said. The website for Swepco said 5,171 people were without power, a quarter of the company’s Benton County customers.

Day shift police officers were held over to help direct traffic, said Keith Foster, public information officer. Traffic signals were not functioning at several intersections along Eighth Street.

“It was like every other one,” Foster said of the signal outages.

Police protocol during a power outage is to check intersections and, where necessary, direct traffic in order to reduce traffic accidents, Foster said.

Several schools in Rogers were without power including Bonnie Grimes Elementary School and Elmwood Middle School. Power failed at the school Administration Building, leaving the district without Internet access.

Because the outage happened late in the school day, administrators didn't discuss dismissing classes early, said David Cauldwell, business manager. Children would have been moved from dark areas of buildings to those lit by emergency lights or windows, if possible, Cauldwell said.

Lights stayed on at Birch Kirksey Middle School, but north of the middle school, Russell D. Jones Elementary and the Annex building on First Street, didn’t have power during the outage.

A local charter school was partially without power. Elementary classrooms and a building used for music lessons on the northern section of the 2005 S. 12th St. campus of Benton County School of the Arts were dark. However, the middle school building and gymnasium at the same address had power, according to school officials.

A woman was briefly stuck in an elevator at Heritage High School during the outage. Firefighters were called and she was freed when a maintenance company technician opened the doors.

The emergency generator at Heritage switched on, but the system failed to switch to the generator. Maintenance workers had to make a delicate manual switch in order for the system to switch over, said Jim White, district facilities director.

The school was without emergency lights and its intercom and bell system for 15 or 20 minutes, White said.

There were radios for administrators, but without lights and computers teachers used their cellphones to text Principal Karen Steen.

“What am I supposed to do?” came one text, Steen said.

“Teach,” Steen said she replied.