Pigeons cause 17,600 residents to lose power

Jul 29, 2011

Pigeons cause 17,600 residents to lose power

by Vanessa Dominguez -

On July 29, electrical power was out for many Greeley businesses and residents, leaving them wondering, “How long will this last?”

General manager Mark, of Del Taco, stated he personally had to turn away thirty drive-through customers and at least that many in the dining area due to a power outage lasting several hours. When power was restored, Del Taco was teeming with hungry customers. Perkins restaurant in the Greeley Mall was fortunate, only losing power for thirty minutes. General manager Rebecca Fulenwider stated Perkins had to turn away a few customers but were still able to provide service to others. Customers were turned away from Perkins due to the grill having no electricity.

There was confusion and congestion on the road as many drivers had to treat intersections as four-way stops. Some drivers threw manners out the window and played Mad Max, increasing danger levels.

Last week customers in Evans lost power for two hours and were told by Xcel it would be up to four hours until the problem was fixed.

According to Michelle Aguayo, Xcel Spokesperson, customers in the Greeley area experienced the initial outage at 8:32 am along tenth-street, and it lasted a little over an hour. The outage was caused by pigeons on a wire resulting in a burned line.

7,000 residents on 23rd Avenue, along the bypass near the Greeley Mall, experienced an outage due to power being re-routed from the first outage.

1,600 people lost power at 11:47 a.m.; 3,200 customers lost power at 12:39 p.m.; both outages lasted less than a half an hour.

At the same time, Xcel experienced a transmission event (all related to redirecting power on the grid) causing a momentary outage that lasted less than 5 minutes. 17,000 customers were effected in Greeley and Garden city.

“Usually what happens in an outage when the system shuts down is it is protecting itself and instead of burning out, like the breaker box in your home,” stated Aguayo.

This should be an isolated event as Aguayo stated Xcel has a 99.989-percent reliability rate and has plenty of power to provide for customers.

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