Power has been restored to about 1,700 customers who were without it Tuesday, including about 700 who didn’t get service back until about 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
Todd Meyers, spokesman for Penelec, said it is a complicated back story to explain what happened and how it was resolved.
“For starters, a total of about 1,700 customers in Bradford City and Bradford Township were impacted by events on Tuesday,” he said. About 1,000 customers had service restored about 9 p.m., while the rest were restored the next morning.
On Aug. 27, there was a widespread power outage in Bradford. It was due to the failure of a transformer at Penelec’s Bradford West substation near the Pitt-Bradford campus.
“These transformers are not the same as the small cylindrical distribution transformers you see everywhere atop wooden utility poles,” Meyers said.
There are a heck of a lot larger.
“They are large, expensive, complex pieces of equipment that are vital for operating the local electric grid. They weigh tons and can measure 10 feet tall by 10 feet long and 6 feet wide,” he explained.
“These transformers are regularly inspected for problems before the summer and winter seasons when electricity use increases to stay cool or warm. Still, they can fail without warning,” Meyers said.
He explained how the equipment works.
“A transformer converts higher-voltage electricity entering a substation on a larger power line to lower-voltage electricity that exits the substation on smaller neighborhood lines to power homes, businesses, schools, etc.”
A substation doesn’t generate electricity, Meyers said, but serves as an “exit ramp for higher voltage electricity which then passes through transformers and other equipment before exiting the station on other lines, some of which are lower voltage.”
So in Bradford, when the transformer failed at the Bradford West substation, Penelec wasn’t able to lower the voltage for one of the lines leaving the substation.
“Like a road network, the electric system is interconnected, giving us flexibility to serve our customers with different lines,” Meyers continued. “In this case, we have been serving some of the customers normally served by the affected Bradford West line with a power line out of the Mill Street substation since late August. That provided the temporary solution to keep the lights on for our customers while we devised a plan to replace the failed transformer.”
As he said, it’s a big, heavy, powerful and complex piece of equipment. Ordering a new one isn’t as simple as heading to the nearest big box store.
“Large substation transformers have a long lead time in today’s manufacturing and tight supply chain environment, often up to several years,” Meyers said.
“The first thing we did after determining that the failed Bradford West transformer could not be repaired was move a mobile substation to Bradford West,” he explained. “Mobile substations feature transformers and other equipment mounted on a flatbed trailer that can be hauled by semi-trucks to wherever they are needed.
“The mobile substation has been at Bradford West for several days and crews have been working to get it installed,” he said. “We also identified a suitable spare transformer in FirstEnergy’s warehouse facility in Connellsville in Fayette County. The plan is to test the spare at Connellsville to make sure it is in working order and then transport it to the Bradford West substation for installation.”
That’s the nuts and bolts of the major issues. So what caused the problem on Tuesday?
“Heat played a major role in Tuesday’s outage, creating high demand for electricity as customers crank up their air conditioning to stay cool,” Meyers said. “When all of our equipment is functioning properly and the system is operating in its normal configuration, handling the summer heat is routine.
“What is not routine is having transformers and other equipment at Mill Street taking on additional work to handle some of the customers normally served by Bradford West due to the transformer failure,” he added.
Meyers said the hot weather exacerbated the situation when Penelec had to transfer more of an electrical load to the Mill Street substation to prevent power issues.
“That transfer, however, resulted in some underground electric cables at Mill Street substation overheating and disrupting power at about 2:30 p.m.,” he continued. “Electric lines leave Mill Street substation through three cables that run for a short distance beneath the ground before resurfacing outside the substation fence in conduits that run up a pole and back onto the overhead system.”
That’s why folks were seeing crews working in the area of Mill Street and Jackson Avenue on Tuesday.
“A large contingency of about 15 line workers and substation electricians, including Penelec employees who traveled in from Warren and Clearfield, worked tirelessly throughout the afternoon, evening and overnight on two parallel projects,” Meyers explained. “They repaired the underground cables at Mill Street substation and completed the installation of the mobile substation at Bradford West. Both jobs wrapped up early (Wednesday) morning allowing power to be fully restored.”
The mobile substation at Bradford West is in service, handling the duty of the failed transformer until a permanent replacement arrives and can be installed — likely from Connellsville as long as the identified unit passes electrical testing, he added.
Meyers said, “We know our Penelec customers were inconvenienced and we appreciate them hanging in there under trying conditions as we worked around the clock to resolve issues and get power restored.”
