Outage darkens Black Butte Ranch

A power outage at Black Butte Ranch (BBR) plunged the community into darkness for several hours on Sunday evening, July 9. The outage brought most operations to a standstill and sent many to Sisters for a late dinner.

The outage started in some areas of Black Butte Ranch as early as 6:30 p.m. and developed into a blackout that affected about 700 homes by 8 p.m. Power was restored by 11:30 p.m., only to have some Ranch area blackouts again until 3 a.m.

Basic Ranch infrastructure was not greatly affected as most of the computers used by the Ranch have backup power supplies. The BBR maintenance department was placed on call to standby at the various pump stations in the event that there were problems with either the water or sewer operations.

Jim Crowell of Central Electric Cooperative said, “The problem was a very old, buried cable that had faulted.”

He said that the lines that were used in the early 1970s were not manufactured to the standards used today and that in the past, there have been numerous problems with these older buried cables. Crowell added that Central Electric Cooperative will be replacing this section of cable this summer with upgraded, modern cable. For the time being, power is being supplied through alternative cables and substations.

Electric service to the Sisters area has been a source of concern to Central Electric Cooperative for several years. These concerns are exacerbated by the rapid growth of the area compounded with aging infrastructure. According to Crowell, there are no quick solutions and it takes a great deal of planning and preparation to prevent the development of a crisis.