Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Centralia City Light to Speed Up Replacement of Pole “Cut-Outs” after Power Outage (KELA Radio, Centralia, WA)

(CENTRALIA, WA) – In the wake of the power outage in Centralia on Oct. 21 that left about 1600 Centralia City Light customers in the dark for up to 24 hours, City Light is going to speed up the replacement of the type of device that failed, causing the initial outage.

City Light Manager M.L. Norton says it was caused by the failure of a device called a “cut-out” which is a fuse designed to protect transformers or other items on power poles.

Norton says that the cut-outs on about 75 percent of the poles in the system are an older porcelain type. He says they are going to replace the porcelain cut-outs in the system, starting with the M-4 circuit, which is the most heavily used.