Many southern Nebraska residents including ones served by South Central Public Power District and Superior Utilities were without electrical power for more than an hour Sunday evening.
The problem started when a device associated with a Nebraska Public Power District transmission line tripped in the high winds which blasted the area throughout the day. The National Weather Service forecast warned of gusts reaching or exceeding 60 miles per hour. In some areas the wind was accompanied by snow and the power lines were galloping.
The problem happend somewhere west of Superior stopping the flow of power feeding Superior.
Fortunately the district can feed Superior from both the east and the west and the east line remained operational. However, when the west line failed, safety switches in the NPPD substation located near the northeastern corner of Superior tripped.
Superior Utility Department workers are trained in how to reset the switches so it was not necessary for NPPD to dispatch a crew to Superior. This likely saved an hour or hour and a half of travel time.
The Superior utility crew entered the substation soon after the outage and began preparing to reenergize the system. However, because of the number of people, communities and power companies involved, it took several telephone calls and considerable time to make sure it was safe to do so. Once the all-clear was given, the switches were snapped back into place, power flowed in from the east and the lights came back on.
Residents of Kearney didn’t fare so well. There the power was off for more than 7 hours.
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