After repeated failures in the regulating devices in a step-down transformer facility in Woodward, Alliant Energy workers after switching to larger devices, but it will mean a three-hour power outage in Woodward Saturday night from 8 p.m. until about 11 p.m.
This will make the third outage for electricity customers in Woodward in the last 24 hours.
“One of them failed last night, and we replaced it,” said Tom Sailer, senior manager of customer operations for Alliant Energy. “We had a failure with it again, so we’re going to change all three of them out and go into a larger size to make sure we goth them covered.”
He said a customer base the size of Woodward’s draws about 2.5 to 3 megawatts during the peak season of summer.
“We’re taking an outage here this evening to get this complete,” Sailer said, perspiring freely in the 90-degree heat, “so we’re taking an outage from eight o’clock to about ten-thirty.”
Longtime Woodward resident John Bustad said the site on Main Street across from the High Trestle Trail trailhead has previously had trouble.
“This has happened there before maybe four times in the last 15 years,” Bustad said, “where the main transformer blew up across the street from the old Standard Oil station.”
