Power ‘blinks’ momentarily disrupts life

Areas in and around Newcastle experienced momentary power outages two days in a row on Aug. 30-31. 
The brief outages caused havoc across the city on Tuesday, with a cloud of smoke from the Wyoming Refining Company’s facility sparking a brief shelter in place at Newcastle’s high school and middle school and closing roads around the refinery. 
The outage occurred at about 2:45 p.m., Superintendent Brad LaCroix said, and the shelter-in-place procedure was implemented as a precaution. He said that the district had received the all clear in time to dismiss students at 3:30 p.m. 
The outage, originally reported to be a power surge, was actually a momentary power outage according to Marsha Nichols, community affairs and public relations manager for Black Hills Energy. 
She reported on Sept. 2 that investigations into the outages determined that they were the result of a failed mechanical device on the power line serving the Newcastle area. The second outage occurred on Aug. 31 at about 11:32 a.m. 
“This failure resulted in two momentary interruptions that lasted approximately one second. The issue has been resolved, and we do not anticipate any further interruptions,” Nichols said. 
According to PRECorp Marketing Communications director Tim Velder, the substation issue caused a power blink in the city, also causing a blink for PRECorp members in rural Newcastle. 
“The BHE substation has some delivery connections with PRECorp’s distribution system, which is causing some blinks on the PRECorp system down the line,” he said, noting that the number of affected members was not available at the time. 
After the Aug. 30 outage, the refinery reported a complete loss of electrical power, resulting in an “unplanned, rapid shutdown” of the operations, according to Mike Baldwin, the health, safety, security and environment manager at the refinery. 
“The refinery was shut down safely. No injuries have been reported,” Baldwin said. “Personnel are assessing any impact from the event. Results of the power loss could be observed when the refinery flare produced some visible smoking.”
The smoke, he said, is primarily soot, similar to the black smoke produced from a campfire. 
“Due to the height of the flare tower and the heat produced from the flame, the soot should travel up into the atmosphere and be readily dispersed,” Baldwin reported. 
He noted that the refinery immediately notified 911 of the shutdown, and communications with the school district were coordinated.
“Personnel continued to assess potential impacts from the rapid shutdown.  … Newcastle Police Department assisted with road closures immediately around the refinery in support of the assessment,” Baldwin said. 
The next morning, the employees were continuing the process of safely restarting the refinery after the unplanned outage when the second one occurred. Company President Mike Farnsworth reported that even the second, more brief outage took down the entire plant once again. 
After he assessed the situation, Weston County emergency management coordinator Gilbert Nelson said observable effects of the second outage were not as severe as the first day.