Questions remain after widespread Washington County power outage

ST. GEORGE, Utah (KUTV) — After tens of thousands of Washington County residents lost power for several hours Thursday night during triple-digit heat, the question remains: What happened and how can it be prevented from happening again?

Power was restored throughout the night, but officials said Friday they still did not know the exact cause.

Bryen Dial, director of energy services for St. George, said it was Washington County’s largest widespread power outage since 2007.

Asked how widespread the outage was, Dial answered, “Everybody.”

Washington County resident Jacob Larsen said his immediate concern was how the heat and extended loss of electricity could affect vulnerable residents.

“The first thing that I worried about is, ‘I hope no one dies from this,’” Larsen said.

St. George and Dixie Power attributed the outage to an issue involving a PacifiCorp regional transformer. Rocky Mountain Power, PacifiCorp’s operating division in Utah, has not confirmed this.

Washington County is served by several separate electric utilities, but those providers are connected through the same regional transmission network. Dial said the PacifiCorp transformer involved carries most of the power feeding those local utility systems.

He explained that when a breaker on one of PacifiCorp’s transformers tripped, the area’s main supply was temporarily interrupted. That caused customers served by multiple power companies to lose electricity at approximately the same time.

Dial said the breaker tripped to protect the equipment, as it was designed to do.

“They don’t have a specific reason of why it tripped, but essentially all the protections worked the way they were supposed to,” Dial said. “It just was unexpected.”

Dial said PacifiCorp had not yet provided a clear explanation for what triggered the breaker.

In a statement, Rocky Mountain Power said engineers and system operators were reviewing data, equipment performance and the sequence of events leading up to the outage.

“They compare information from multiple sources to understand what happened, what equipment responded and whether there were contributing factors elsewhere on the system,” the company said.

Rocky Mountain Power said several entities are connected to the same transmission network and that collecting and analyzing information from across the system will take time.

Residents who spoke with 2News said they were relieved the outage lasted less time than they initially expected. However, Larsen said he hopes the disruption prompts a broader discussion about energy sources in southern Utah.

“I hope it starts a conversation, because we need more resilience,” Larsen said. “It’s fine for someone to go and buy a home battery and generator, but not everyone can afford that, so the policies upstream need to change, I think.”

Larsen also urged public utilities to consider time-of-use plans that would encourage customers to reduce or shift electricity use during periods of peak demand.

St. George issued a red alert Friday as the regional grid continued to recover. The city asked residents to limit electricity use between 3 and 7 p.m., raise thermostats by a few degrees and wait until after 7 p.m. to use major appliances.

St. George Mayor Jimmie Hughes told 2News that creating redundancies in the system and preventing similar outages are among his priorities. He did not specifically address whether solar or other alternative energy sources would be part of those efforts.

Rocky Mountain Power provided the following statement:

Once service is restored, engineers and system operators begin reviewing system data, equipment performance records and the sequence of events that occurred across the electric system leading up to the outage. They compare information from multiple sources to understand what happened, what equipment responded and whether there were contributing factors elsewhere on the system. Because events like this can involve multiple pieces of equipment and several entities connected to the same transmission network, it takes time to collect and analyze all of the information. In an event of this size, much of that information must be collected directly from equipment in the field, which requires technicians to retrieve and download data from individual devices before engineers can complete a comprehensive review.

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