As the Southeast Alaska Power Agency performs early work to prepare for adding a third turbine next year at its Tyee Lake hydroelectric power plant, transferring between diesel generators and hydroelectric power led to a bad day for residents.

On Monday, Oct. 19, residents across Wrangell, Petersburg and Ketchikan had their morning disrupted by a power outage just after 9 a.m. The outage came as a surprise shortly before a planned shut-off to allow for upgrades to the hydropower plant’s 45-year-old system.

In Wrangell, backup diesel generators were already prepped for transfer and power was restored within an hour.

 But that brief outage was followed by several more over the next 24 hours.

“They’re trying to get ready for the third turbine to be installed and one of the contractors screwed a bolt in and they shorted out the 480-volt service,” said David McHolland, superintendent at Wrangell Municipal Light and Power. “It blacked out Tyee and, in turn, it blacked out Wrangell and Petersburg.”

Wrangell experienced four power outages within the two days, according to McHolland. The systemwide outage Oct. 19; a localized outage when trees fell on a line at around 5.5-Mile Zimovia Highway; then communication errors led to another outage when transferring back to hydropower at 8 p.m. that same day; and issues at Ketchikan’s Swan Lake hydropower project led to a partial system shutdown the morning of Tuesday, Oct. 20.

An email statement from SEAPA CEO Robert Siedman on Oct. 22 confirmed that the initial outage and later Swan Lake outage were the result of contracted work for the upgrade project in preparation for the new turbine installation. “Other subsequent outages were unrelated to the Tyee facility.”

This is the second round of issues this month, following brownouts that occurred the morning of Oct. 1, when Wrangell transitioned to generators for a planned Tyee shutdown. 

Outages and unstable voltages can be frustrating for residents and cause issues for household appliances, as was expressed by Wayne Kaer’s public testimony at the Oct. 13 borough assembly meeting. 

“The brownout was avoidable. Those diesels were not running when SEAPA shut down, and it took over an hour to get them running after the brownout,” Kaer told the assembly. “During that, it took my water heater out.” 

Kaer was seeking reimbursement for the appliance after what he said was an avoidable issue led to a surprise $562 water heater replacement. “Good thing I didn’t have the TV on because I’d be complaining about that too.”

Whether the heater failure was caused by the electrical supply issues or not, there is an ordinance that protects the borough from being held responsible for electricity-related broken appliances. The ordinance “says explicitly that the city is not responsible for damage or accidents due to possible phase failure or abnormal voltage variations,” according to Mayor Patty Gilbert. 

Both Gilbert and Assembly Member David Powell shared their own stories of frustration with appliances destroyed during power surges and outages in the past. However, all members of the assembly said they thought it best to keep the ordinance in place so as to avoid what Powell called “opening the floodgates.” 

Gilbert said in an interview on Oct. 20 that she sympathized with Kaer, having had an oven damaged after a power surge a decade earlier. 

“After that experience with me, I checked into what’s called a whole-house surge protector that they can install either on the line or on the load side of your main disconnect for your electrical power,” Gilbert said.

McHolland from Wrangell Municipal Light and Power said surge protectors can be a good option, but don’t protect against underpowering issues like brownouts. For these issues he said residents could use something called a “buck-booster,” which is a small transformer that can raise the voltage coming into the house.

“The surge protector helps with when the frequency goes up, and the buck-booster helps when the frequency goes down. It helps catch it and stabilize it, and it cleans the power up,” McHolland said.

Otherwise, to prepare for winter he suggested that residents check that their own backup generators work, if they have one, and make sure they have wood on hand if they have a wood heating option. He said the municipal power department is working to complete maintenance projects that will help make electricity more reliable.

On the Tyee side, Siedman said in his statement they understand that any outages create inconveniences for their customers.

“SEAPA is performing much of this work while the powerhouse remains operational to minimize disruptions,” Siedman said, “and avoid the substantial costs of diesel generation that our communities would otherwise incur if the facility were taken offline for the duration of construction.”