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PROVO — More than 3,500 Provo Power customers were without power Monday evening while temperatures climbed above 100 degrees.
Soon after outages were first reported, that number was cut nearly in half — down to 1,700 affected customers, according to Kat Linford, public information officer for Provo Power. By 6:45 p.m., power was restored to all customers, according to Provo Power.
A heat advisory was issued for Monday and Tuesday by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for Salt Lake and Tooele valleys, and along the southern Wasatch Front and northern Wasatch Front.
According to the Provo Power outage map, affected homes were concentrated between East 800 North and East 200 North along North University Avenue up to the eastern mountain slope.
The outage occurred because the company is currently rebuilding an entire substation on 900 East, meaning the city is short one substation, Linford explained. This project will help with loading for the next 40 years, officials explained on social media.
Due to delays and a wiring issue, the company hasn’t been able to finish the project as quickly as first expected Linford said. It’s now estimated it will be fully commissioned by the end of the month.
But in the meantime, the project will continue to cause reoccurring power problems for customers in the area.
“We have a plan to put into place tomorrow morning that should help with these recurring issues,” according to the company’s Facebook.
Because the city is down two full transformers, the system is experiencing an overload, Linford said.
In order to handle the overloads, crews are working to shift loads to other Provo substations. Because of the heat and time of day the east bench experienced the power outage.
While trying to restore power, crews worked to shift power to substations while keeping them all leveled and balanced, Linford said.
She said the company understands being without power isn’t convenient, but she noted that crews work hard to restore it to customers.
“We know it’s hot out there, we know it’s uncomfortable, but we also have crews that are working out in the heat trying to get this done,” she said. “So just be patient and nice about it.”
